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Sharjeel asks MQM to expel criminals from its ranks

Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Wednesday

By News Desk
January 30, 2015
KARACHI: The additional IG is accusing the MQM on the basis of prejudice, alleged Faisal Sabzwari, a leader of the MQM, while talking to Shahzaib Khanzada in Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Wednesday.
Sabzwari said that Shakeel Ouj and Sibte Jaffar were MQM supporters and their murder was part of the conspiracy to destroy Karachi and the intelligentsia.The MQM leader said that the CID officials had declared the Sindh Amir of a banned organisation as the murderer of Shakeel Ouj and they also arrested him.
Sabzwari said that police officials had been posted on the basis of kinship. He said if they accepted the notion that MQM workers were not picked up by plainclothesmen but that they had been kidnapped, they would like to ask them if it was not the job of the government to recover the kidnapped people.
The MQM leader said that Sohail Ahmed was the 36th activist of the party who was killed “extra-judicially” since the targeted operation began.Sabzwari alleged that 15,000 MQM activists were killed extra-judicially during PPP governments in the past.
The MQM leader said that Saulat Mirza had an association with the MQM in the past. If an MQM activist indulged in a crime, the MQM did not stand behind the activist and the MQM could not be implicated in that crime. He alleged that the MQM activists had been dealt with unfairly to the extent that there were examples in which the activist attempted to draw a judge attention towards the marks of torture on their body but the judge simply told them that they had been confessing their crimes. He said that the MQM had a simple plea not to corner anyone on the basis of caste, language or politics.
Sabzwari said that the PPP claimed of running a successful operation in Karachi, but it failed in arresting the killers of its own MNA, Waja Karim Dad, and its district president Malik Khan Muhammad. He said that those convicted in Wali Babar case did not belong to the MQM except one who once had an association with the MQM.
Sabzwari said that police could also do a good job provided they were not used to impose one’s political mandate.Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo while speaking in the programme, said, “I am just a police officer. I do not have any grudge against anyone. All the people are equal to me.”
Thebo said that he did not cite the name of Muttahida during his press conference today. He said that he had simply said at the press conference that the accused had been saying that he belonged to the MQM. Only after the investigation it would transpire whether the accused was speaking the truth or not. He said there was no policy envisaging targeting of a particular party and action would be taken against anyone involved in crimes no matter what political party he belonged to.
The additional IG said that the MQM had not provided the police with the number of the high-roof car allegedly used in the kidnapping of Sohail Ahmed. Police and other law-enforcement agencies did not use high-roof cars. He said they insisted on the MQM to have an FIR about the missing of Sohail Ahmed registered. Thebo said that a team had been formed to inquire into the killing of Sohail Ahmed and they would act on whatever evidence the MQM would provide them.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said that the government had ordered the police to arrest those involved in Sohail Ahmed’s murder.The minister said that it was being said that a PPP senior leader, Saeed Chawla, had had an altercation with the slain MQM activist at a Kutchery. “The question I would like to ask here is what has the MQM unit in charge been doing there?”
Sharjeel Memon said that it was unfair to accuse anyone without any evidence and everyone knew how long and since when Karachi had been in the grip of lawlessness. He said that MQM during the press conference had also accused the police and the Rangers.
The provincial information minister said Lyari in Karachi was the PPP’s area and yet the highest number of activities during the targeted operation took place in Lyari. He said neither had the chief minister nor had the Sindh government issued any instructions for acting against a particular party.
Sharjeel Memon said that there was nothing wrong if the additional IG had shared with the people some details about the killers of Sibte Jaffar and Shakeel Ouj.The minister said that the fact that many of the people arrested during the targeted operation belonged to the MQM could not be denied. He said it was written in the court judgment in Wali Babar murder case that those convicted belonged to the MQM. He said the MQM should expel the people within it who were involved in criminal activities.