MQM official jailed for threatening Nadeem Nusrat, Wasay Jalil

LONDON/WASHINGTON: The head of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Maryland chapter Qaiser Ali has been imprisoned for one year with one month of prison and eleven months of suspended sentence for threatening to kill Nadeem Nusrat, the former senior leader of the MQM, his wife and Wasay Jalil.

Qaisar Ali pleaded guilty before Virginia’s Fairfax County Court into the charge of threatening to slaughter Nadeem Nusrat, his wife and MQM’s former central coordination committee member Wasay Jalil in a threatening tweet.

Nadeem Nusrat and Wasay Jalil parted ways with the MQM-London almost a year ago and Nusrat has been running the Voice of Karachi and South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation from his base in Washington DC.

Qaisar Ali will also remain on the court probation for a year, according to a trusted source in the MQM in America.

Qaisar Ali said he will have to demonstrate the best of his behaviour during the sentence and probation period or face immediate jail custody, The News has learnt from the trusted source.

The court has also issued a two years protection order in favour of Wasay Jalil, Nadeem Nusrat and his family which means Qaisar Ali is barred from being seen in the close vicinity of Nadeem Nusrat, his wife and Wasay Jalil or his family.

The court has also ordered the MQM Baltimore incharge to surrender any fire weapons or their permit he may have and will not be allowed to buy any firearms in future.

This correspondent had reported early last month that the Baltimore MQM official has been charged of threatening to “slaughter” three people in Virginia but Ali’s targets were not identified at that time and the Fairfax County police and search warrant didn’t name anyone.

It emerged on Wednesday at the court that the threatened persons were Nadeem Nusrat, his wife and Wasay Jalil – all of whom are now alienated with the MQM’s leader and founder Altaf Hussain.

Qaiser Ali, 53, of Halethorpe, Md, faced a charge of promising to kill at least three Pakistanis from the USA via a message and video in Urdu posted to Twitter in November. Ali had denied the charge. The police in America believe that the threat had no relation or link with the MQM’s leadership in London and Ali made threat on his own.

Ali issued threat in the following tweet: “We the loyalist faithful workers of Brother Altaf Hussain are, willing God, we will storm through and kill (slaughter) you in/at the house.”

This tweet was produced by the police in its case filed in a Fairfax County court after the targets told the police that they feared for their lives.

Ali had denied making a death threat, saying police had mistranslated his tweet. He said one of the alleged victims in the case had posted numerous harassing messages about him on social media and that he responded with a tweet threatening to beat the man up but not kill him.

“There was no indication that the suspect made any plans to carry out the threat that was communicated,” Detective Chad Mahoney said at the time of charging of Ali. No weapons were recovered from his home. The detectives eventually tied the threats to Ali via electronic records, according to the search warrant.

In 2016, Ali was charged in Baltimore with second-degree assault and possessing a dangerous weapon with intent to harm, but the charges were eventually dropped.