Worried over recent attacks, MQM-P demands security for leaders, lawmakers

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which is successfully overcoming the turmoil that beset it after it split away from party founder Altaf Hussain and had to be renamed, is now facing a new challenge – attacks on its offices and leaders.

In recent months, the MQM-P has experienced a wave of attacks on its leaders and offices in the city’s various parts.

In most recent incident, six assailants riding motorbikes on Monday night opened indiscriminate fire on a Union Committee office in New Karachi, killing activist Shakeel Ansari and injuring Azam Zahoor, another activist, according to the police. The MQM-P says that its MNA Osama Qadri and MPA Khawaja Izharul Hasan regularly sit in the office to listen to constituents about their issues.

On December 25, MQM-P former parliamentarian Ali Raza Abidi was assassinated in an incident of targeted killing in the DHA area.

At least six people were injured on December 9 in a hand grenade attack on a MQM-P programme organising a Mehfil-i-Milad in Gulistan-e-Johar. MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who is also a federal minister, was attending the gathering as the chief guest.

The party is worried over the attacks. “The recent attacks show that terrorists’ main target is the party’s leadership,” said Siddiqui. “It is also complete failure of the Sindh government.”

The party has been demanding security for its leaders for the past several months, especially after the attacks occurred in December. “We have asked the federal and provincial governments to provide security to the party’s leaders, who are facing security threats but no one is listening us.”

the party has also written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, requesting him to provide foolproof security the elected members of his party.

“Given the current wave of terrorist attacks on the MQM-P and the deteriorating situation of law and order in Karachi, the lives of the elected and organisational leadership of the party are in great danger,” Siddiqui wrote in his letter on December 29 to the prime minister.

The MQM-P leaders believe that the recent attacks are aimed at hampering the party’s activities and spread panic among supporters in the city.

“Recent electoral victories – the December by-polls in local government seats and January by-polls in the PS-94 – have helped the party to revivify and now we have plans to focus on the upcoming local government polls,” said a MQM-P leader. “In this connection, the party has been restructuring its organisation at neighbourhood level.”

But the party’s leaders believe the recent attacks show that some forces are unhappy with the MQM’s regaining its lost turf.

Legal notice to Sattar

The MQM-P on Tuesday again sent a legal notice to former party leader Dr Farooq Sattar over the illegal use of the party’s name, electoral symbol and flag.

Sattar has recently formed a group called ‘Organisation Restoration Committee’ (ORC) within the party and is actively carrying out his political activities under the platform of a group he formed.

Addressing Sattar, the letter says that his membership of the MQM-P has been terminated vide an order of the party’s central coordination committee (Rabita Committee) on September 13. However, he is still using the party’s name over which the party has serious concerns, the letter says.

The letter is signed by MQM-P convener Siddiqui and lawyer Gul Faraz Khan. The party warned that legal action would be taken if Sattar continued to do so. The letter says that on 8 January 2019 the MQM-P’s Rabita Committee had sent the same notice to Sattar over illegal use of the party’s name, electoral symbol and flag.

Earlier, on September 13, Sattar resigned as a member of the party’s Rabita Committee. He sent his resignation to the party’s convener Siddiqui. Later, a party meeting, held at the Bahadurabad office, accepted Sattar’s resignation before issuing him a notice over the alleged violation of discipline.

Slain worker laid to rest

A Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker who lost his life in an attack on the party’s office was laid to rest amid tears and sobs on Tuesday, reporter Faraz Khan added.

The police were yet to register a case as the family was busy with funeral and burial. Shakeel Ansari was killed and Azam wounded when the assailants barged into the MQM’s UC office in New Karachi and resorted to fire at the office staff.

There were around 20 people in the office when the attackers stormed the office. “They (attackers) came and just opened indiscriminate fire,” say the witnesses. “Ansari and Azam did not get a chance to get inside the office as all we managed to hide in the warehouse.”

The witnesses claim that some eight to ten assailants were behind the incident, who had come with covered faces. Police officials said that it was not an ordinary attack, as usually attackers did not use sophisticated weapons in such attacks. “The attackers even used sub-machineguns (SMGs) with 9mm pistols,” explained SHO Khushal Khan. “We have collected 16 empties of the SMGs and 14 of the 9mm pistols from the crime scene.” The officer said that more empties were found on Tuesday during a search in the area which suggested that more than two dozen rounds were fired during the attack, but fortunately the remaining staff members remained unhurt.

Police investigators also visited the crime scene to gather evidence and to record the statements of the witnesses. Police officials said that that they remained clueless about the motive. “It is a strange attack. They (attackers) could kill everyone as they had manpower and sophisticated weapons, but they did not kill all of them,” the officer explained. “It is yet to be ascertained if they really came to kill the MQM leaders who used to sit there; so why they came in their absence.”

In replying to a question, the officer said that nothing could be said exactly until the investigation was completed. The funeral prayers were offered near Ansari’s residence in New Karachi and later he was laid to rest at the Muhammad Shah graveyard. A large number of his family members, relatives, neighbourers and friends attended the funeral.

MQM leaders, including Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Amir Khan, Faisal Sabzwari, Salman Mujahid Baloch and Khawaja Izharul Hassan, also attended the funeral.

The participants of the funeral also staged a sit-in over the incident and demanded justice and the immediate arrest of the culprits. More than five major incidents of political violence in Karachi have been occurred in Karachi in less than three months in which the PSP and MQM workers and offices have been came under attack, giving impression of a tit-for-tat killing but the MQM leadership denied such impressions.

MQM leaders termed it a conspiracy of a ‘third party’. “It is neither a turf war nor a political war but it is a conspiracy being hatched by the third party,” explained Khawaja Izharul Hassan. “It was a major attack as the terrorists used SMGs in carrying out an operation and it is a question mark on the Karachi operation and the Sindh government as well.” In replying to a question about the threatening calls of extortion to MQM leader Osama Qadri few days ago from South Africa network, the MQM leader said that nothing could say exactly as it is a responsibility of the investigators to probe and arrest the suspects behind the series of attacks on MQM as earlier MQM leader Ali Raza Abidi has been shot dead and MQM’s Milad has also been came under attack in Karachi and all the cases remained unsolved.