ISLAMABAD: The government urged the United Kingdom on Wednesday to take notice of statements emanating from its territory to incite violence in Pakistan.

The issue was raised by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan during a meeting with British High Commissioner Philip Barton. Informed sources told Dawn that the minister had particularly mentioned MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s recent remarks in which security personnel were threatened.

Chaudhry Nisar was of the opinion that nobody in the UK should be allowed to make utterances against security agencies of Pakistan.

The high commissioner was informed about an FIR registered against the MQM chief under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code for threatening, in a TV talk show, Rangers personnel who had raided his party’s headquarters Nine Zero in Karachi last week.

Mr Hussain was reported to have said that those who had raided the MQM headquarters now belonged to the past and would become history. Many saw it as a direct threat of their physical elimination.

Hard-hitting statements are continuously coming from the MQM chief since the March 11 raid during which several MQM workers, including wanted criminals, were arrested from and around Nine Zero and a large quantity of arms and ammunition seized.

A source claimed that the arrested criminals had gathered there to mastermind a plan to free Saulat Mirza, an MQM worker who was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court, in view of his possible execution in Karachi.

According to the source, the revelations were made by some of those arrested during the raid.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2015

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