HYDERABAD: Activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) took to the streets of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas on Tuesday against a crackdown on their party colleagues, institution of “false” cases against them and the encouragement allegedly being shown by the establishment to the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) to replace it in different areas of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and other cities.
MQM members of the Sindh Assembly Ayesha Aftab, Zubair Ahmed Khan and Dilawar Qureshi led a rally taken out in Hyderabad to condemn what they described as an unfair treatment being meted out to the MQM and its activists, supporters and sympathisers by the establishment.
Speaking to the participants, including women and children, the MPAs claimed that under a conspiracy, the PSP was being encouraged to replace the MQM after imposing a media ban on [MQM chief] Altaf Hussain. They said raids were being conducted on the houses of MQM activists, who were being arrested in “false” cases or taken to undisclosed places after being picked up without any reason.
The lawmakers said that a similar attempt to crush the MQM had failed when a group calling itself Haqiqi was brought in to wipe out the party. They said MQM had survived all attempts in the past to crush it and the ongoing effort in the shape of PSP would also meet the same fate.
They condemned the alleged torture of MQM activists in custody and demanded their immediate release.
Nabeel Ahmed Khan, a member of the MQM organising committee for Sindh, Zafar Khan, who heads the party’s Hyderabad zone, and Sohail Mashadi said that oppression against the party had now started in Hyderabad and Sukkur after Karachi.
MIRPURKHAS: A large number of MQM activists led by the party’s Mirpurkhas zone, Mujeebul Haq, held a demonstration outside the local press club and demanded lifting of the media ban on their leader, Altaf Hussain, release of all party colleagues taken into custody by law enforcement agencies and withdrawal of cases against their colleagues.
They also condemned registration of a case in Sukkur against MQM workers and supporters following a clash late on Sunday evening.
They alleged that the PSP was being supported by the establishment in its anti-MQM activities
They urged the establishment to first look into the activities of PSP and establish as to who were Indian agents, alleging that the PSP leaders were involved in china-cutting and anti-state activities.
MPA Dr Zafar Ahmed Kamali, speaking to the protesters, urged the army chief to help locate scores of missing MQM activists.
SUKKUR: An FIR (68/2016) was registered on behalf of the state at the A-Section police station on Monday against Shahzad Gulfam, the Sukkur zonal in-charge in the MQM’s organisational structure, and around 150 men and women for attacking a caravan led by PSP leader Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday evening. Police said two of the suspects were arrested.
According to the FIR, the caravan led by Mr Kamal was on its way to Bunder Road from railway crossing on Shikarpur Road when it came under attack near Makrani Masjid on Bunder Road.
The mobsters who included youths, women and children, were led by Shahzad Gulfam, Saleem Kamboh, Shahzad Ansari, Nadir Khan, Fareed Siddiqi, Usman Rajput and Faheem Soomro.
The suspects attacked the caravan with clubs and stones causing damage to several vehicles including a police mobile van, it said. The FIR said that some media men covering the PSP event were also injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, Mr Kamal, continuing his outburst against the London leadership of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), on Tuesday claimed that its militant wing had long been killing Sindhis, Pathans, Shias and Sunnis and while without a work, its own party workers.
Speaking to the media at a local hotel, Mr Kamal said his hint about naming the eight close aides to [MQM chief] Altaf Hussain in meetings with RAW had sent the top Muttahida leadership into ‘a state of coma’.
“It will take them a few days to come out of coma and then I will reveal the names,” he said.
Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2016