KARACHI: Sindh Ran­gers launched a renewed crackdown on the Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement and took into custody its three key Karachi-based leaders as well as the man in charge of Hyderabad and raided houses of several leaders and workers on Saturday.

The fresh action by the Sindh Rangers suggested that the establishment was determined not to allow the party being controlled from London to regain a foothold in Karachi and Hyderabad.

A senior PTI leader not only welcomed the arrests but also demanded that the MQM-London be not allowed to carry out political activities in the country.

On Friday, the MQM had announced that it would hold a news conference at the KPC on Saturday at 4pm. Before the scheduled time of the event, a heavy contingent of Rangers arrived at the press club and sealed the entry and exit points of the road where the press club is located.

Unlike last Saturday when the paramilitary force blocked the main gates of the press club when the same coordination committee was holding its first press conference, the Rangers blocked both ends of the road and allowed motorists and pedestrians only after having their identities checked.

Two members of the coordination committee, Prof Dr Hasan Zafar Arif and former MNA Kunwar Khalid Younus, were picked up in front of the Karachi Press Club when they arrived there to address the news conference.

A third MQM leader, Amjadullah Khan, who managed to enter the press club, later announced postponement of the event because of the arrests. He was also taken into custody in the evening when he came out of the KPC.

The Rangers shifted all three leaders to an undisclosed location. Till late in the night, none of them were formally arrested in any case.

In Hyderabad, the top man of the Hussain-led party in the city, Zafar Rajput, was also taken into custody by the paramilitary force, claimed MQM’s London-based leader Wasay Jalil.

He tweeted that the Rangers also raided the Karachi residences of two more coordination committee members, Advocate Sathi Ishaq and Ashraf Noor, and taken into custody Mr Ishaq’s teenage son and daughter and Mr Noor’s 35-year-old brother when they did not find them.

Only eight days ago, London-based MQM convener Nadeem Nusrat had announced a 12-member interim coordination committee. Next day, nine Karachi-based members held a news conference at the press club after which scores of Altaf Hussain loyalists, including women, staged a demonstration and chanted slogans in favour of their London-based leader. While Rangers were there, no arrest was made that day.

And on Oct 20, a heavy presence of the Rangers and police did not stop a number of MQM workers from converging at Azizabad’s Mukka Chowk and marching towards the Jinnah ground to visit a monument, Yadgar-i-Shuhda.

However, most workers were not allowed entry in the Jinnah ground and only women and a few men were allowed to offer Fateha. However, no one was arrested in Azizabad.

MQM leader Jalil demanded immediate release of the held leaders and workers.

Meanwhile, the PTI, which had a soft stance for the MQM being led by Dr Farooq Sattar, showed no mercy for the party being controlled by Mr Hussain when its senior leader Imran Ismail termed the arrests a positive sign and demanded that the party be not allowed to carry out political activities in the country.

“The MQM-London is an anti-Pakistan party and its other leaders should also be arrested immediately,” he demanded in a statement posted on the social media.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2016

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