KARACHI: The Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, claimed on Friday to have found evidence suggesting that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain had asked his workers to go into hiding and said instances of activists “willingly disappearing” should not be counted as cases of “missing persons”.

The paramilitary force shared its finding with the Senate Standing Commi­ttee’s Functional Com­mittee on Human Rights, led by its chairperson Nasreen Jalil, which expressed surprise and resentment over the absence from its meeting of the provincial police chief and the Rangers director general. The committee put several questions to the law enforcement agencies’ officials, mostly related to the Karachi operation against criminals.

When a member of the committee raised the issue of missing persons, Col Qaiser Khattak of the Rangers said that disappearance of every person could not be put under that account and during his explanation referred to a recent video of the MQM founder suggesting to his workers to go into hiding to avoid arrest.

“A video message recently emerged in which Altaf Hussain issued directives to his workers to go into hiding,” he said. “It’s nothing new as such messages were forwarded to workers in the past as well. So we should be very careful while declaring all people disappearing as missing persons. Many do that willingly.”

The Rangers officer also said that the findings of an investigation into the custodial death of an MQM worker and coordinator to the party’s leader Dr Farooq Sattar could not be shared because the process was still on and if anyone wanted access to the information they should approach the court.

Karachi police chief Mushtaq Mahar also said investigations into the reason behind the death of the man in May were still under way and reaching a conclusion in the case could take time.

The PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar and the committee’s Chairperson Jalil, of the MQM, expressed dissatisfaction over the argument.

“It will be criminal if the committee does not demand a thorough investigation into the death of Aftab Ahmed because he died in custody,” Senator Babar said.

“An investigation by the Rangers is not justified because it is being blamed for his death. If killings in custody are to be stopped, Aftab Ahmed’s death should be taken as a test case.”

Senator Jalil also questioned the authority of the Rangers and police to hold the investigations when they themselves had been blamed for the incident.

The police and Rangers officials faced several critical questions related to their performance and human rights in the city.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Senator Samina Abid appeared to be the only member of the committee that endorsed the operation led by the Rangers.

“Peace was needed in Karachi and the Rangers made that possible. We cannot ignore the sacrifices the men in the armed forces have made to restore stability to Karachi,” she said.

Col Khattak said while briefing the committee that 7,950 operations had been conducted in Karachi since Sept 5, 2013 and over 6,300 suspects had been handed over to the police.

Some 450 criminals were killed in encounters with the paramilitary force during the three years which had also claimed the lives of 30 soldiers, he added.

Published in Dawn September 24th, 2016