August 22 attacks in Karachi were preplanned: DG Rangers

KARACHI: Director General Sindh Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar said on Monday the August 22 violence in Karachi’s security Red Zone was a planned conspiracy.

The DG Rangers was speaking to journalists after visiting the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and meeting the victims of arson attacks.During their investigations, he said, they learnt that the August 22 attacks were a preplanned activity, which was committed by unit and sector activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Major General Akbar said the six key suspects the Rangers had arrested had told them the names of other MQM activists who brought sticks, those who brought weapons and those who shot dead a citizen and injured other people that day. He said raids were being conducted to arrest the suspects that were on the run.

The DG Rangers said that it was midday when office-bearers of the MQM’s Labour Division assembled unit and sector activists to carry out attacks on media houses. At two banks situated between the the Karachi Press Club and a media house near the Fawara Chowk, the Labour Division members acted as facilitators in the attacks, he added.

He said that after the Labour Division officials were instructed by their Central Committee or by unidentified members to facilitate their men, they sheltered the miscreants inside a bank and also provided lunch to them.

Those sheltered men who were hiding nearby after the provocative speech by the MQM founder attacked a media house and also created a law and order situation in which a person was shot dead and several others were injured, he said.

The DG Rangers stated that among the six arrested suspects was one Jawed, who belonged to the MQM Labour Division and was a facilitator.One suspect on the run, Buland Khan, was identified by the suspects in custody, he said.All the six accused were handed over to the police for further legal proceedings. Raids are being conducted for the arrest of the remaining accused.