MQM demands regular medical checkup of under-custody workers

KARACHI: Senior Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Farooq Sattar demanded on Thursday that medical checkup of party workers that have been remanded in Rangers custody for 90 days must be carried out on regular basis.

The demand comes days after Sattar’s coordinator Aftab Ahmed allegedly died in Rangers custody.

Aftab Ahmed was reportedly detained by law enforcement personnel in plainclothes during a raid near Mukka Chowk in Federal B Area on Sunday evening. He was presented before a judge of the anti-terrorism court on Monday by the paramilitary Rangers . The court had granted the Rangers' request for a 90-day preventive detention.

On Tuesday he was rushed to the Jinnah Hospital where he was announced dead on arrival.

The MQM had claimed that Aftab Ahmed had died in Rangers’ custody. The Army Chief ordered an inquiry into the death of the MQM worker on Wednesday. The party held several peaceful protests in the city denouncing the murder as the paramilitary remained tightlipped over the situation maintaining that Aftab Ahmed had died of a heart attack.

Aftab Ahmed was buried on Tuesday at the Shuhada Graveyard at Yaseenabad where the party honours its martyrs. His body was brought to the Numaish Chowrangi, where his funeral prayers were attended by thousands of MQM supporters. Aftab was buried enclosed in a coffin, as his body had been mutilated.

Speaking at a press conference today, Dr Farooq Sattar said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a big mistake by refusing to form a monitoring committee to oversee ongoing Karachi operation despite accepting the demand rose in the all parties conference (APC) on the issue.

“If that committee was formed Aftab Ahmed incident would have never happened,” he said.

Sattar said MQM has not demanded to curtail special powers of Rangers or the 90-day remand period. “All we want is that persons on remand must be presented before courts on regular basis,” he added.

Expressing satisfaction over Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s orders of an inquiry on Aftab Ahmed’s death, the MQM’s senior deputy-convener said the postmortem report has also confirmed inhumane torture marks on Ahmed’s body.

He said families of other 165 workers fear about the same treatment to their loved ones under custody of the paramilitary force.

Sattar went on to say that the matter of ‘confessional videos’ was another issue worth looking into from scratch.