FIA seeks ATC's OK to search KKF offices in Rs 6bn laundering case

By
Talha Hashmi
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KARACHI: The FIA's Counter-Terrorism Wing on Saturday filed a request to the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) seeking permission to conduct a search of the KKF's offices and seal the records in light of an ongoing money-laundering probe into the MQM's social welfare division.

According to a report produced by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), funds worth at least Rs 6 billion were funnelled into the MQM's Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), from where they were sent to undisclosed locations abroad, including London.

The report further states that the aforementioned funds, which were collected via means of extortion and ransom from innocent civilians, were used to finance terrorism and anti-state activities.

In this regard, multiple former and incumbent members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), including Dr Farooq Sattar and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, have been summoned to Islamabad between February 27 and March 7, 2018.

The MQM leaders summoned to Islamabad include Sattar, Jameel, Ali Raza Abdi, Dr Arshad Vohra, Adil Siddiqui, Abdul Haseem, Syed Anwar Raza, Iftikhar Alam, Moin Amir Pirzada, Shiraz Waheed, Adnan Ahmed, Sufiyan Yousuf, Sheikh Salahuddin, Muhammad Abdul Rauf, Mahboob Alam, Ahmed Ali, and Sajid Ahmed.

The request, submitted to ATC No. 2, Karachi, was made on the back of the revelations to date from the case investigation and an analysis of the KKF's records, following a complaint lodged by Sarfaraz Merchant.

The case has been filed with the FIA State Bank Circle, while the probe continues under a collaboration between the ATCs in Karachi and Islamabad.

Prior summons

Earlier, on February 13, Geo.tv reported citing sources that the FIA had summoned ten leaders of MQM associated with KKF on February 15.

The agency suspects that these members had been collecting money through extortion and 'China cutting' and sending it to the UK through KKF accounts.

Sources said that these MQM members would be questioned about where the money comes from and what are their ways to collect it. They would also be inquired about any person(s) who facilitated them in sending funds and, most importantly, how this money was spent.

A money laundering case was lodged against the MQM supremo and KKF in Karachi in 2017. However, it was later transferred to the FIA's Counter-Terrorism Wing, Islamabad.

It is also pertinent to note here that following an inflammatory speech by the party founder in August 2016, the MQM broke up into two factions. Later, some members defected to other political parties as well.

Last week, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad published an advertisement in The Guardian, a British media outlet, wherein it declared the London-based founder of the MQM a proclaimed offender in the murder case of Dr Imran Farooq — the late senior leader of the party who was assassinated in London, back on September 16, 2010.