KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information Technology and convenor of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi has requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide foolproof security to elected members of his party.

Earlier, Prime Minister Khan had ordered an inquiry into the killing of former MQM-P MNA Ali Raza Abidi and had also asked the Sindh government to provide security to MQM leaders.

In a letter to the prime minister, the minister urged Mr Khan to order security agencies to provide foolproof security to elected members of his party and senior leaders who were facing serious threats.

“Given the current wave of terrorist attacks on MQM-P and the deteriorating situation of law and order in Karachi, the lives of the elected and organisational leadership of the party [MQM-P] are in great danger,” the minister wrote in his letter to the prime minister.

“In order to cope with the situation effectively, it is once again requested to kindly issue necessary orders to security agencies for the provision of foolproof security to elected and organisational members of MQM-P,” he added.

Dr Siddiqi recalled recent incidents of targeted killing and attacks on MQM-P leaders and legislators. Apart from the killing of Mr Abidi, he also reminded the prime minister of a bomb attack carried out earlier this month on senior leaders of the party.

On Dec 8, a religious gathering organised by the MQM-P at a residential complex in Gulistan-i-Jauhar had come under a bomb attack, leaving eight people injured. On Tuesday, Ali Raza Abidi was assassinated outside his home in DHA just two days after two workers of the Pak-Sarzameen Party (PSP) were killed in an attack on their office.

“These attacks embody the objectives of the terrorist to create anarchy and lawlessness,” said the minister.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2018