KARACHI, March 21: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has criticized the religious parties which have been condemning the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan.
Speaking at a meeting organized by the party's UK chapter in London on Sunday to mark the MQM's founding day, he asked the religious parties that why had they remained silent when such an operation had been carried out in East Pakistan, then in Balochistan and also in the urban and rural areas of Sindh.
Mr Hussain also rejected the religious parties' stance that 'the US is the biggest enemy of Islam and Muslims' and the allegation against President Musharraf of a sell out on nuclear programme. He also refuted their claim that the President had put the country's security and sovereignty at stake.
"Who had issued Fatwas when a cold war was under way between the US and USSR... and who had strengthened the US by sending 'Mujahideen' to fight against the Soviet forces... helping the US in becoming the lone super power?" he questioned.
He, however, offered sympathy to those innocent families who lost their loved ones during the South Waziristan operation, saying that no human being could approve killing of innocent people.
Referring to the parties' hue and cry over the 'threat to Pakistan's security', the MQM chief mentioned the June 19, 1992 operation, conducted by the same army and launched on the orders of the state.
"The innocent people of Karachi were subjected to extra-judicial killing and none of these religious parties had come out with protest against the oppression."
Meanwhile, the MQM intelligence wing has claimed that three death squads had been formed to assassinate Altaf Hussain. The squads, involving some religious extremists, had been dispatched to London.
It further claimed that one of these squads, led by a 'Haqiqi terrorist', whom it identified as Tehseen Zafar, had left Karachi on Feb 23 and arrived in London via Dubai.
The MQM leadership alerted British and Pakistani officials about the assassination plot and sought a prompt action in this regard, according to the MQM intelligence wing.
