MQM demands recovery of missing party workers within 72-hours

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Farooq Sattar on Friday demanded of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to form a commission to probe into extra-judicial killings of MQM activists at the hands of people in plainclothes.

Addressing a press conference at MQM Headquarters, Nine Zero, Sattar accused law enforcing men in civvies for illegally arresting and killing their activists.

He said that the prime minister should form a commission under the supervision of Corps Commander Karachi to investigate the killings of MQM activists.

“We will produce proofs regarding involvement of security personnel in the killings and arrests of our activists to the commission,” he said.

The MQM leader said that they would stage sit-ins at highways leading to entry and exit points of the city if their missing activists were not recovered within 72 hours.

“We now think that it would have been better if the party had announced sit-ins at that time rather than using other legal ways,” he said.

MQM leader said that the way four of their activists were brutally tortured could not be ignored in a civilized society.

He said that MQM was a responsible organization and it would never point out anybody over brutal torture of its activists on mere suspicion.

He said that soon after their killing, the law enforcement authorities declared that they had not arrested these people.

It is the responsibility of LEAs to safeguard the lives of people and find out elements behind their killings but it was MQM which will reveal the facts behind the killings.

Giving account of eyewitnesses regarding the incident, Sattar said that soon after Kaarachi operation was initiated, MQM unit offices were closed and the activists were holding meetings at other spots like hotels, snooker clubs and other places.

He said that a similar meeting was convened at a snooker club at an apartment building in Scheme-33 on April 13, where fifteen people including six party activists were present.

During the meeting a man wearing yellow cap was found roaming in the area for almost three hours, confirming the presence of the MQM activists in the area and after that two private double-cabin cars carrying men in civvies came to the snooker club and started arresting the MQM activists and sympathizers, he said.

He added that considering the men as dacoits, the security guard of the apartment opened fire on them but he was also taken into custody.

In the meantime, two vehicles of law enforcing agencies came to the snooker club to escort the double cabin vehicles and they whisked away 15 people including MQM six activists.

He said that five sympathizers were left outside the snooker club while five more were left at different spots of the city, after the other six were identified by a masked man outside Rangers check-post at Sohrab Goth.

MQM leader demanded of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice of the situation and play their part in safe recovery of MQM activists and bring the killers to justice.