KARACHI, June 19: Afaq Ahmad, head of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, on Monday accused the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s founder and his associates of betraying the Mohajirs, whose name they had allegedly exploited to get power.

In a letter faxed to newspapers, Mr Ahmad, who is interned in the Karachi Central prison, asked his supporters to remain steadfast and vowed to foil all attempts to eliminate the Mohajir Qaumi Movement.

He alleged that those who had begged the Mohajirs for their support in their formative phase of politics were now involved in working against the Mohajir cause. He thought that by changing the name of the party and its student wing from Mohajir to Muttahida was betrayal of the community.

Together with Muttahida leadership, Mr Ahmad also held Gen Pervez Musharraf responsible for what he called the killing of Mohajir youth. He alleged that Gen Mushrraf had giving a license to kill to the “terrorists” of one his coalition partners, to prolong his own flawed rule.

Mr Afaq Ahmad, in his letter, alleged that after refusing to drop the word Mohajir from the party’s name and abandoning its original cause, in 1991 when he had called for resisting attempts to divide the Mohajirs, “terrorists” armed with klashnikov mounted an assault on the Mohajir nation, killing many and forcing several thousand to shift to other places. In 1992, he said, the same elements, in connivance with the intelligence agencies, manipulated the operation and ordered activists helping him in the Mohajir cause to go underground, thus undermining the struggle.

Afaq Ahmad claimed that when Azim Ahmad Tariq ventured to take up the challenge of steering the Mohajirs from the dire straits, he too was eliminated.

He maintained that June 19, 1992 was very important in the history of the Mohajirs and claimed that if he and his colleagues had not decided to remain steadfast to the original thought, the Mohajirs would have been completely wiped out.

Asking his supporters to remain vigilant and spread his message by word of mouth, Mr Ahmad alleged that those who were sitting in London were still conspiring against the Mohajirs.