KARACHI, Nov 7: Police raided several houses in Landhi, including that of Mohajir Qaumi Movement general secretary, and picked up over 80 MQM-H activists and sympathizers, the party spokesman claimed.

However, the police disputed the MQM-H claim and said that no crackdown operation against the party was launched.

According to the spokesman for MQM-H, police surrounded different localities in Landhi and raided the house of MQM-H activists and sympathizers.

The raids were started some three days back when the police picked up Wazeer Hasan Naqvi, MQM-H joint sector in-charge of Landhi. His house was raided and ransacked. He was whisked away by the police and since then his whereabouts were unknown, the spokesman said. Moreover, he said that MQM-H Karachi committee member Shamshad Ghori and members MQM-H labour division Jamil Ahmed were also taken away by the police and their whereabouts were not known.

He claimed that a heavy contingent of police raided several houses in Landhi between the night of Thursday and Friday and ransacked the house of party’s general secretary Amir Khan. The police took away some important documents, letters and other particulars. The police also picked up Amir Khan’s nephew, Sabih Azam, and another relative Sohail Baboo, who had been released recently on bail, he said.

The party spokesman said that the police also ransacked the house of MQM-H MPA Yunus Khan, misbehaved with his family and took away his brother Javed Khan.

The area women staged a protest demo against the police action and detention of youths. They arranged an Iftar dinner at temporary Baitul Hamza where police were deployed. However, some elements came over there, allegedly misbehaved with the women and took away food items meant for Iftar and dinner.

The spokesman said that the matter was reported to the concerned police officials, but they had not taken any action against the looters. Instead, the women were getting threats from the criminal elements, he added.

Landhi Town Police Officer Latif Siddiqui said that the police had not carried out massive raids targeting any party or group. He said the police had picked up four suspects for their involvement in criminal activities. It was a routine police activity to pick up suspected criminals and after investigation, the police either let them off or book them in a case.