KARACHI: Despite roadblocks and a heavy deployment of law enforcement agencies, a large number of workers and supporters, including women, of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London reached the Azizabad area on Saturday to visit and pay respects at Yadgar-i-Shuhada — a monument built in memory of MQM activists killed over the years — only to be baton-charged and taken into custody by law enforcers.

The MQM has been observing Dec 9 as Yaum-i-Shuhada to commemorate the killings of its supporters in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities over the years. The day was chosen since a brother of party supremo Altaf Hussain and one of his nephews were killed in Karachi 22 years ago.

Since Friday night, a heavy deployment of police and Rangers was made in areas leading to the Jinnah Ground, where the monument is built, close to the party’s sealed Nine Zero headquarters, to stop MQM-L workers and supporters from gathering there on the call of Altaf Hussain.

On Saturday morning, police blocked the double-track main road from Ayesha Manzil to the Comprehensive School roundabout as well as adjacent roads leading to Jinnah Ground by parking buses and water tankers.

The closure of an important artery that linked Federal B Area with Gulshan-i-Iqbal caused immense hardship to the people and commuters. All vehicular traffic was diverted to alternative routes and it took hours to complete even a brief journey that otherwise takes merely five to 10 minutes. The roads remained blocked till late in the night.

Chanting pro-Altaf slogans, scores of MQM workers, including women, tried to proceed towards the monument from Mukka Chowk, but the police resorted to baton-charge in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

A group of workers also tried to approach the monument from Madni Masjid route near a K-Electric office, but law enforcers were present there too and stopped them. Many people, including women, were arrested.

A large number of women, however, lay floor mats on the road near Madni Masjid and started Quran khwani.

TV footage showed policemen in plainclothes manhandling women.

While dozens of people were taken into custody, the police action aimed at merely removing the protesters from the scene as they claimed to have released them in the evening and no case was registered against them.

Closure of a key artery linking Federal B Area with Gulshan-i-Iqbal causes immense hardship to people

SSP Central Irfan Baloch told the media that the women arrested at the scene would be released shortly. Later in the evening, he said police arrested four persons in the troubled areas. “They all are being released on surety from their families,” he added.

The coordination committee of the MQM-L criticised the police action and deplored that the government, army, Rangers and police allowed “religious extremists to hold Islamabad hostage, but they were stopping us from even offering Fateha at the graves of our martyrs”.

Events in Hyderabad

Mohammad Hussain Khan adds: Like Karachi, police besieged the Pucca Qilla area to deny entry to MQM-L activists to observe Yaum-i-Shuhada by offering Fateha at the graves of party workers killed in different periods since the MQM was formed in 1984.

Since morning, a heavy deployment of police and Rangers caused a huge traffic blockage around Pucca Qilla that continued into the evening.

Police had padlocked a local graveyard located on the premises of the fort to prevent the activists from visiting graves of party workers buried there.

Roads from the Gari Khata and Guru Nagar sides that lead to the historic fort remained closed with barbed wires. Even streets connecting with the fort were blocked.

At around 3.30pm policewomen pushed back some female supporters of the MQM-L as they tried to enter Pucca Qilla. Police pushed them towards the shrine of Sakhi Abdul Wahab Shah Jillani. No arrests were made.

MQM-Pakistan

The MQM-Pakistan held congregations at its temporary headquarters in Karachi’s Bahadurabad area and Hyderabad’s Scout ground, Latifabad, to observe Yaum-i-Shuhada.

In the evening, MQM-P leaders and office-bearers went to the ‘Shuhada’ graveyard in Yasinabad and offered Fateha.

MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar expressed his concern over the arrests made in the Azizabad area as he told reporters that his party would request the government and administration to “release the arrested women as soon as possible”.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017