LONDON: The Metropolitan Police released Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s senior leader Muhammad Anwar on bail, at least 12 hours after he was arrested during a dawn raid on Wednesday in money laundering investigation. Muhammad Anwar, a close aide of MQM chief Altaf Hussain and a member of party’s Central Coordination Committee, was expecting this raid for a long time and for him the high-profile raid must not have come as a surprise. Geo once again maintained the tradition of breaking news before any Pakistani or western media outlet by informing the audience about the dramatic raid. At around 5am, Scotland Yard detectives, accompanied by forensic experts, arrived at Muhammad Anwar’s home, shifted his family to another place and took him for questioning. Scotland Yard said in a statement that the 64-year-old man had been released on bail till mid-July while an investigation into the money laundering cases by the Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command Unit continues. All day long detectives were seen combing family cars of Muhammad Anwar parked in the street and were seen carrying away material from inside the house into boxes. Around two dozen officers took part in the raid. Located in a quiet posh street, just a few minutes walk from the MQM Secretariat, Anwar’s four-bedroom house became the centre of attention as the Pakistani media descended outside. Residents were surprised that so many policemen had descended on their street. Most of the residents are of Jewish background. Speaking to this correspondent, all of them described Muhammad Anwar and his family as ‘very nice people’, ‘good neighbours’ who went about their lives peacefully and were ‘well respected in the local neighbourhood’. They described Anwar’s wife and children as the ‘best neighbours one can have’. They had no idea that it’s Pakistani politics and issues related to it that have led to a quiet street becoming the centre of police and media attention. Muhammad Anwar was taken to a central London police station where he refused to answer the police questions in the light of the advice given by his lawyers who had reached the police station within three hours of his arrest. Muhammad Anwar has become the sixth person to have been arrested and released on bail in relation to the money laundering probe involving the MQM. The others so far arrested and released on police bail are: MQM leader and founder Altaf Hussain, Tariq Mir, Sarfaraz Anwar, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Iftikhar Quraishi. Muhammad Anwar is a high profile MQM figure who provided shelter and assistance to Altaf Hussain when the he fled to London in 1992. He has advised MQM on international matters and has been effective in running campaigns at the international level and represented the party at major international forums. His command of English language made him more prominent than others as he was able to articulate MQM’s viewpoint before the international audience and he worked well on that front. It is his centrality in the MQM affairs that he has been known to the UK authorities at all levels for a long time. He has dealt on the MQM’s behalf at the top diplomatic level and has been the face of the MQM for many years, although he has been less prominent in the last few months.
