KARACHI: While Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain remained in the custody of British authorities in a London hospital on Tuesday, party workers and supporters flocked to the Numaish traffic intersection and staged a protest sit-in that continued till late hours, calling for the immediate release of their leader.

Carrying tri-coloured MQM flags and portraits of Mr Hussain, the workers and supporters, led by senior party leaders, shouted slogans in his favour and demanded that the British authorities release him immediately.

The sit-in was organised after MQM leader Hyder Abbas Rizvi appealed to the workers and supporters to participate in the protest, which he said would continue “until Mr Hussain is not released”.

Speaking at a press conference at the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, he said everyone should come to show solidarity with Mr Hussain. “The MQM is a political party that strongly believes in a democratic process and will demonstrate peaceful and democratic retaliation to this unfortunate incident,” he said while addressing party workers and supporters who had rushed to the party headquarters in Azizabad to get latest details with regard to Mr Hussain’s arrest.

Within no time the whole city was shut and the incidents of violence paralysed life in the metropolis.

However, the MQM quickly disowned those who resorted to violence and its senior leaders appealed to the workers “to control their sentiments and maintain peace at all cost”.

In its first response to the news of Mr Hussain’s arrest, MQM’s senior London-based leader Nadeem Nusrat told a press conference that the London Metropolitan Police

arrived at the residence of Mr Hussain in north London in the early hours of Tuesday to arrest and interrogate him in a money-laundering case.

Sharing the medical condition of Mr Hussian with the media, he said: “We would like to say that Mr Hussain has been very ill for the past several days and only yesterday the MQM coordination committee discussed his health situation and contacted his personal doctor. The doctor visited the residence of Mr Hussain and examined him. He advised him to shift to hospital. He also consulted with various specialists and it was decided that today [on Tuesday] in the morning Mr Hussain will be admitted to a London hospital where he will undergo treatment for the next few days.”

Confusion, however, prevailed despite his press conference as at that time the MQM did not confirm Mr Hussain’s arrest.

Mr Nusrat said that Mr Hussain was getting ready for the hospital when the police arrived at his house and informed him that he was being arrested for investigation. “Mr Hussain is still at his residence and our lawyers are in contact with the police,” he said at the press conference.

However, the MQM coordination committee later confirmed that Mr Hussain was taken to a police station where a doctor would examine his health and decide whether he was fit to be ‘interviewed’.

In the meantime, the MQM local leadership asked Mr Hussain’s followers to remain peaceful and “not to pay any attention to rumours”.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2014