MQM shutdown today over ‘extrajudicial’ murder

Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement announced on Wednesday that it would observe a province-wide shutter-down strike on Thursday (today) against the “extra-judicial” killing of Sohail Ahmed, the party’s in-charge at unit 64 in Sindhi Muslim Society.
The MQM coordination committee in London and Karachi appealed to traders and transporters to keep their businesses closed and public transport vehicles off the roads.
The party said Ahmed was whisked away by the law enforcement agencies on December 15 and his body was found on Wednesday in Mawach Goth.
The party’s coordination committee held the Pakistan People’s Party responsible for the murder. It said Saeed Chawla, a senior PPP activist, had earlier threatened Ahmed.
However, Chawla tweeted that he had never met Sohail. Senator Saeed Ghani of the PPP tweeted that by blaming Chawla without any investigation of proof, the MQM was protecting the actual killers.
Soon after the news spread that Ahmed’s body had been found, filling stations and shopping centres in Bahadurabad and Tariq Road were closed and shoppers started returning to their homes. Later, many parts of the city were shut down.
The Karachi Tajir Ittehad, the transporters’ association and the All-Private School Association announced a shutdown on Thursday.
The University of Karachi also postponed the exams schedule for the day.
Condemning Ahmed’s murder, MQM chief Altaf Hussain said 36 party activists had been murdered in Karachi in recent days. He also accused Rangers of killing MQM activists under the garb of the operation against criminals.
Hussain said some “agencies” were carrying out the operation against the MQM on the orders of the government. He asked the prime minister, the chief of army staff and ISI director general to take notice of the killing of MQM activists and supporters.
Talking to reporters outside the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Ahmed’s body was taken, MQM MPA Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan said the party office-bearer was abducted by men who introduced themselves as law-enforcement personnel.
“For the past several days, we have been telling the government about our workers being abducted and murdered but to no avail,” he said. “We have raised our voice at every forum but the government has turned a deaf ear to our grievances,” he added.
Senator Babar Ghauri of the MQM sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asking him to take notice of the issue.
The prime minister assured the MQM that stern action would taken against those involved in the killing of party office-bearers and activists.
Committee set up
Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo constituted a six-member investigation team, headed by DIG South Abdul Khaliq Shaikh, to investigate the killing of MQM activist Sohail Ahmed.
He had been kidnapped from Ferozabad area in 2014 and his and his bullet-riddled body was found on Tuesday from Musharraf Colony.
The MQM has alleged that the law-enforcement agencies kidnapped Ahmed, who was a unit incharge of the party’s Society sector, and dumped his body in the city’s outskirts after killing him.
To protest against what the party describes as “extra-judicial” murder of its worker, it gave a call for strike on Thursday in Karachi. A case was registered at the Ferozabad police station.
The investigation formed by the Karachi police chief also comprises SSP City, SP Investigation II, SDPO Mochko, and SHO and SIO of the Mochko police station. Since the deceased was abducted from the East Zone, the city police chief also directed DIG East Munir Ahmed Shaikh to expedite pertinent investigation.