ISLAMABAD: Two suspects facing trial in the murder of MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq on Thursday backtracked from their confessions recorded in the case.

In 2016, Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali Syed confessed before the magistrate about their role in Dr Farooq’s murder.

Before the ATC, both suspects claimed that they were forced to confess and were subjected to torture before recording their confessional statements.

A suspect alleged that he was asked to sign a ‘ready-made’ confessional statement.

In the alleged forced confessional statements recorded under section 164 of the criminal procedure code, Mohsin said another suspect, Moazzam Ali, had handled his travel documents and stay in London.

He had earlier stated that at a university hostel in London he and his accomplice Kashif Khan Kamran, whose whereabouts are not known and may have died, hatched a plot to kill Dr Farooq. He said they monitored the movement of Dr Farooq in London to know about his daily routine.

On the day of the murder, he said, he grabbed Dr Farooq while Kashif stabbed him and then bludgeoned him with a brick to ensure his death.

In his confessional statement, Shamim said he had consented to join the murder plot because he was a diehard MQM activist, sources said.

Shamim claimed that senior MQM leader Mohammad Anwar gave the order to assassinate Dr Farooq.

The JIT constituted to investigate the murder had suggested that MQM chief Altaf Hussain regarded Dr Farooq as a threat and wanted him eliminated. The JIT report also noted that all three suspects were members of the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation, the MQM’s student wing.

The murder took place on Sept 16, 2010 near Dr Farooq’s London home.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2019