MQM’s Maryland leader accused of threatening to ‘slaughter’ family

WASHINGTON/LONDON: The head of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Maryland chapter has been charged of threatening to “slaughter” a man and his family in their Virginia home, according to Fairfax County police and a search warrant.

The Washington Post reported that Qaiser Ali, 53, of Halethorpe, Md., is facing a charge of promising to kill at least three Pakistanis from the USA via a message and video in Urdu posted to Twitter in November, said the paper quoting police. Ali has denied the charge but a senior leader of the MQM in America confirmed that Ali had issued death threats to three unnamed activist who were once part of the MQM and all of them knew each other.

Qaisar Ali is the head of the Baltimore chapter of the MQM. The police in America believes that the threat had no relation or link with the MQM’s leadership in London and Ali made threat on his own.

Ali issued threat in the following tweet: “We the loyalist faithful workers of Brother Altaf Hussain are, willing God, we will storm through and kill (slaughter) you in/at the house.”

This tweet has been produced by the police in its case filed in a Fairfax County court.

The Post said that the main alleged victim told police that he and his family feared for their lives because he knew people who had been executed at the direction of MQM leadership, according to the search warrant. The alleged victim told detectives that he had once been involved with the MQM.

Ali has denied making a death threat, saying police had mistranslated his tweet. He said one of the alleged victims in the case had posted numerous harassing messages about him on social media and that he responded with a tweet threatening to beat the man up but not kill him.

“Ali said it in anger, and police mistranslated it,” the interpreter said.

Ali claimed that the disagreement stemmed from an internal MQM dispute over the handling of party funds.

“There was no indication that the suspect made any plans to carry out the threat that was communicated,” Detective Chad Mahoney wrote in an email to The Washington Post, confirming that the police had not uncovered any evidence that Ali possessed weapons or knew the main alleged victim’s address.

The Fairfax County police launched their investigation in November after the alleged victim contacted them about the Twitter message. The alleged victim and two other witnesses told police that they believed Ali was responsible for the post.

The Post said that detectives eventually tied the threats to Ali via electronic records, according to the search warrant.

The paper also reported that in In 2016, Ali was charged in Baltimore with second-degree assault and possessing a dangerous weapon with intent to harm, but the charges were eventually dropped. Ali’s case will be heard on Thursday at the Fairafz Country.

The news as the MQM leaderships in Britain finds itself embroiled in dispute over two properties and two former loyalists of the MQM leader have issued threats to report him to the police. Muhammad Anwar and Tariq Mir have alleged that the MQM leadership is involved in negative campaign against them but the MQM has denied any kind of involvement