KARACHI, May 14: Various opposition leaders at a press conference here on Monday said that the peaceful and complete strike observed in the country, including Karachi, showed that masses had rejected the Muttahida Qaumi Movement as they condemned terrorism.

Declaring the MQM ‘a terrorist organization’, they resolved to act now for the protection of people and pledged to constitute peace committees to guard neighbourhoods.

They called on every citizen to join hands with the opposition in its initiative against terrorism.

Those present at the press conference included Syed Munawwar Hassan, Siddiq Rathor, Aslam Ghauri, Amin Khattak, Yusuf Mustikhan, Khan Mohammad Baloch and Rasheed Kashmiri.

They said that the May 12 incidents of violence had exposed the MQM’s claim of being a political organisation, and alleged that the MMA’s stance that it was a fascist one stood valid.

They accused the MQM of having created hatred among different ethnic communities, recalling that it had pitted Urdu-speaking people against Sindhis, Punjabis and Pakhtuns in the past, besides continuing to kill Mohajirs.

They said that the whole nation and the world had watched the May 12 episode live on the electronic media which showed the MQM role in the bloodshed clearly.

“MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar is now tendering apologies but we want the terrorists given exemplary punishment,” they maintained.

Referring to Dr Sattar’s claim that 10 or 11 MQM workers had been killed in the May 12 violence, they said he should tell people that funerals of how many of them he had attended.

The opposition leaders said that the government’s offer of providing a helicopter for the chief justice was in fact a conspiracy to eliminate him. They pointed out that the chief justice had first been kept in illegal confinement for five hours by Gen Musharraf a couple of months back and for more than nine hours by the Karachi and Sindh authorities on May 12 at Karachi airport.