HYDERABAD: Tension gripped the Tilak Incline area late on Monday evening after activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the rival Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) came face to face and argued over some petty matter.

Local PSP leaders, Shoaib Jafri, Fahim Arain, Rashid Arain and others, visited the locality to meet Shahid Billa, stated to be an MQM activist who defected to the PSP soon after its top leaders, Mustafa Kamal and Anis Kaimkhani, announced their dissociation from the MQM on Mar 3. Billa’s defection, however, remained secret.

Noticing some PSP activists’ presence outside Billa’s house, several hundred MQM activists gathered in the densely populated locality and started raising slogans against them. They alleged that the visiting PSP men brandished weapons, while sitting outside the house, to cause provocation. They also alleged that one of the visitors, Sharjeel Kaimkhani, also used abusive language against the top MQM leadership.

Muttahida MPA Rashid Khilji also arrived in the locality.

As the situation grew tense, personnel from the City and Market police stations rushed to the area to prevent a clash. They persuaded the visiting PSP leaders to leave the area using an alternative way to avoid a confrontation with their rivals.

Meanwhile, Billa told Dawn that he had been in touch with Kaimkhani for a long time. He said MQM activists gathered in the locality, while he was sitting with his PSP colleagues, and started hurling abuses on them. He said he and the visiting PSP leaders left the area to avoid a confrontation.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2016