KARACHI, Nov 16: Office-bearers of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association (MMWA), who were picked up by police on Saturday, were released on Monday.

Siraj Qureishi (Senior Vice-President), Saleem Qureishi (Vice-President), Iqbal Qureishi (General Secretary), and Sikandar Iqbal (Joint Secretary) and two other office-bearers were picked up in a raid on Aiwan-i-Qureishi in Soldier Bazaar Saturday evening and detained at the Preedy police station.

After his release, Mr Iqbal Qureishi said: “We don’t want to take law into our hands. We have not called a strike, therefore, there is no question of calling it off.”

He said that the association had directed meat sellers to follow the price list of the city government if they were provided meat on the wholesale rates as fixed by the government.

He contended: “We were told that exporters would provide us mutton at Rs130 per kg, but we are not getting it at the promised price. As such, we are unable to sell it at the price fixed by the government i.e. Rs150 per kg. We are ready to sell mutton at Rs150 even if it is provided to us at Rs135 per kg.”

Mr Qureshi alleged that the government was using police as a tool to harass meat merchants and force them to sell meat at government rate. He further alleged that the police had threatened to sentence them to three-month jail if the strike was not called off.