KARACHI: Leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement insisted on Thursday they had undeniable evidence that the party worker, Syed Waqas Ali Shah, was killed by the Rangers during Wednesday’s raid on the MQM headquarters and urged the Sindh government to set up a judicial commission to investigate the incident.

They called the raid a conspiracy to create a ‘gulf between MQM and the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh’ by a certain section because the two had the same stances about fighting terrorism and extremism.

“We are here to negate a perception that it is something MQM versus Rangers,” Dr Farooq Sattar said at a press conference.

He said the MQM respected institutions and their dignity, but “people also have self-respect which should be honoured by others”. An impression was created that the raid was conducted to arrest suspected criminals or wanted people, but more than 100 people, mostly not associated with the MQM, were picked up from several houses around Nine Zero, he added.

Dr Sattar said Waqas Ali Shah was a young, intelligent and bright man with a promising future, but unfortunately the facts about his killing were being distorted by a few TV channels.

Haider Abbas Rizvi said that after the raid “some people want to see the MQM and Rangers on two different sides” and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was one of them. “Imran Khan lives in a fool’s paradise. He must understand that the PTI cannot establish its political base in Karachi.”

Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi, Faisal Subzwari and Advocate Arif Khan also attended the press conference.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

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