FIA seeks MQM founder’s arrest, extradition through Interpol

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) on Friday requested the Interior Ministry to issue red warrants of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain and bring him back to the country through Interpol.

According to interior ministry sources, the ministry has received a request from FIA which seeks MQM founder’s arrest through Interpol in Imran Farooq murder case.

They said that if interior ministry approves then Pakistan would contact Interpol to bring Altaf Hussain back to the country. However, a final call in this regard would be made by Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar.

Imran Farooq, 50, a founding member of the MQM, was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, north-west London, as he returned home from work on September 16, 2010.

Farooq was a close confidant of MQM founder Altaf Hussain and a senior party leader when he fled the country in 1992.

He was living in North London after claiming political asylum and had reportedly later become an inactive member of the party, which has also recently been the focus of a money laundering investigation in the UK.

However, Scotland Yard refused to reopen the investigation into the money laundering inquiry involving the MQM-London chief few days earlier.

Scotland Yard said that it will not reopen the case unless Pakistan provides credible and compelling new evidence along with its appeal to the police here requesting a reinvestigation.

London Metropolitan police last year in a statement provided the progress in the investigation into the murder.

According to the Met police, around 4,600 people have been interrogated in relation to the case so far and up to 7,800 documents have been reviewed in the case.

The London police said officials from the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command are determined to see the investigations into Imran Farooq’s murder through.