Interpol’s red notices issued for accused in Imran Farooq murder case

ISLAMABAD: After a legal battle of around a year with the Interpol, the Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has succeeded in getting red notices issued of three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders, allegedly involved in Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case, The News has learnt.

The CTW of the FIA had written to Interpol headquarters (Lyon), France in December 2017, but red notices were issued only a couple of days back. The MQM leaders against whom Interpol’s notices are issued in Imran Farooq’s murder case include Muhammad Anwar, red notice no A-10835/10-2018, Iftikhar Hussain Qureshi, red notice no A-10837/10-2018 and Muhammad Kashif Khan, red notice no A-10838/10-2018.

It may be relevant to mention here that on Dec 5, 2015, the FIA’s CTW had registered a case against the MQM chief Altaf Hussain and other party leaders for their alleged involvement in the 2010 murder. Imran Farooq was murdered in a knife attack near his residence in Green Lane, Edgware, in September 2010. He was founding member of the MQM.

After receiving the Interpol’s intimation, the FIA has written to all provincial police chiefs including Punjab, Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad and FIA’s Immigration Wing for information and necessary action in this regard.

The FIA has stated to the concerned law enforcement agencies/departments to help in tracing and arresting all the three suspects wanted in FIR no 1/2015 registered with CTW Islamabad under various sections including 302, 120b, 34, 109 PPC and 7 ATA.

Issuance of red notices of the accused persons have also made the way for the FIA to write to Interpol for the similar notice for the MQM founder Altaf Hussain, an FIA official said. “Had we written for red notices of all the four accused persons, including Altaf, in one go than our request could have been turned down, citing political reasons,” the official said, adding that their request of red notice for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in high-treason case has been turned down by Interpol recently, citing political reasons behind the case.

Furthermore, he said after the issuance of notices, Muhammad Anwar, Iftikhar Qureshi and Kashif Khan can be arrested at any airport in the world. To a question, he further said the UK authorities will have to act upon the FIA’s request to help them in arresting the accused persons, whenever they are found at its soil.

After the arrest, all the accused will have to be deported back to Pakistan to face the murder charges. In May this year, an anti-terrorism court had indicted three suspects Muhammad Shamim, Syed Mohsin Ali and Moazzam Ali in the same case.

Reportedly, two of the accused Shamim and Ali had recorded their confessional statements before the magistrate, alleging that the MQM leader was eliminated because he was a real threat to the leadership of the party. The third suspect, Moazzam Ali hasn’t reputedly recorded his confessional statement as yet.