KARACHI: A Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker died in police custody under controversial circumstances on Monday.

The Pak Colony police claimed that he committed suicide but the hospital official said their findings did not match with the police version.

Waseem aka Raja, who was detained on Sunday for carrying an illegal weapon, committed suicide in the police lock-up, said Karachi-West SSP Nasir Aftab. He said that initial investigation suggested that at around 2am, he hanged himself inside the lock-up with the help of a handkerchief and an iron rod.

A policeman heard a ‘strange voice’ late Sunday night and rushed towards the lock-up where he found, Waseem, hanging, he added.

The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi where his post-mortem examination was conducted in the presence of a judicial magistrate concerned.

Senior medico-legal officer Dr Qarar Ahmed told Dawn that their medical findings did not match with the police version that he hanged himself with the help of ‘handkerchief.’

However, the MLO said, they had reserved his cause of death for chemical and histo-pathological report.

Meanwhile, MQM-London leader Nadeem Nusrat in a statement said that Waseem had been ‘killed extra-judicially’. He added that 67 workers had been ‘killed extra-judicially’ so far.

Separately, MQM-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar said Waseem was their party’s worker in Orangi Town. He was ‘martyred’ in police custody, said Dr Sattar while asking the chief minister and the IG police to take its notice.

Karachi-West DIG Zulfiqar Larik later suspended the SHO of the Pak Colony police station and ordered a ‘proper inquiry’ under the supervision of the superintendent of police in Orangi, said SSP Aftab.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2016