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| November 9, 2005 | Wednesday | Shawwal 6, 1426 |
MQM decides to wind up relief camps
KARACHI, Nov 8: The Central Coordination Committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement decided on Tuesday to close down the party’s relief camps and field hospitals in Azad Kashmir and the quake-affected areas of the NWFP because of attacks on the camps by “terrorists of Jamaat-i-Islami”.
The committee asked all its leaders, workers, doctors, paramedical volunteers engaged in relief work to return to Islamabad.
The decision was announced by Mohammad Anwar, member of the committee and senior coordinator international, corporate relations and human rights affairs, in a statement faxed to the Dawn office late on Tuesday night.
The statement said that the committee would “like to inform the international community, NGOs and human rights organizations that the MQM had been forced to close down its relief camps because of attacks by “armed international jihadi terrorists of Jamaat-i-Islami and their hooligans.”
The statement accused the “Pakistani establishment” of patronizing the jihadi elements.
Mr Anwar said that leaders and office-bearers of the MQM contacted all relevant government officials, including the president and the prime minister, to seek protection for workers and sympathizers of the MQM, “but no protection has so far been provided while the terrorist activities of JI continue to increase in intensity and two workers of MQM were kidnapped by these terrorists”.
He said that the decision to wind up the relief activities had been taken unanimously by the committee.
Our Staff Reporter adds from Islamabad: Earlier on Tuesday, the party’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly had threatened to wind up its relief activities in quake-affected areas in the next 24 hours if its workers were not provided with adequate security against “attacks by Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) activists”.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, Dr Farooq Sattar said they were forced to take the extreme step after “JI activists attacked two MQM workers in Muzaffarabad”.
“If the attackers are not arrested in the next 24 hours, we will have no option but to end our relief activities,” he said.
He accused the JI of sabotaging MQM’s relief work and said that JI activists had uprooted their relief camps and stamped on MQM’s flags at several places over the past week.
Dr Sattar said that Zubair Bhatti, a resident of Kunri Tehsil of Mirpurkhas, was kidnapped by ‘Jamaat goons’ at 2pm in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday. Later, he said, Bhatti was found with a bullet injury on his chest. He was under treatment and his condition was out of danger.
He said another MQM worker, Adil Rashid, who had been kidnapped by JI activists at 4pm from Muzaffarabad, was also found injured.
He said the MQM had no political agenda. “We have even suspended our political activities in Sindh due to the disaster, then how can we do politics in the earthquake-hit areas?” he asked.
He said it seemed that MQM’s opponents were perturbed over reports that MQM’s workers had won praise from locals for their relief activities.
Dr Sattar pointed out that the MQM had welcomed the daughter of JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNA Samia Raheel Qazi, when she visited one of their relief camps in Azad Kashmir.
Answering a question, he said the MQM would continue its relief work in other parts of the country but it would end its ‘physical presence’ in the quake-affected areas as it did not want to politicize the relief operations.
He said the MQM would also close its field hospitals and added that it would consider handing over those hospitals to some NGO so that the needy could continue to get treatment.
In reply to another question, Dr Sattar said some ‘other forces’ might also be involved in the attacks to sabotage MQM’s activities. However, he emphasized, they were sure that Bhatti was kidnapped and shot at by the Jamaat activists.
About allegations by the JI that its workers had been attacked by the MQM people, he said it could be the result of an internal rift within the JI.
“However, we demand that those involved in attacks on JI workers should also be arrested and punished.”
He said the matter had been brought to the notice of President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
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