‘MQM-London financier’ arrested in Malir

Malir district police personnel, in collaboration with the Sindh Rangers, arrested a suspect with weapons and explosive material on Monday.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Ali Bahadur, chief of the district police, said that after they received information about a suspicious activity, snap checking was started in the Malir city area.

He said cops and paramilitary soldiers were carrying out snap checking on a road when they signalled a car to pull up by the roadside. However, on seeing the law enforcers, the driver tried to speed away. The law enforcers gave a chase and apprehended a man, identified as Miraj Ali Shaikh, an associate of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-London).

SSP Bahadur said that during a search of the vehicle, three Avon bombs, an unspecified number of hand grenades, three kilograms of explosive material, a detonator, a prima cord, a two-meter wire, a battery, a 30-bore pistol, Rs100,000 and cell phones were found and seized.

During the initial interrogation, the police learnt that Shaikh had joined the MQM-London in 1988. He had registered a construction company ‘MA Enterprises’ with the Pakistan Engineering Council in 2008. He had been managing contracts for the construction of buildings, including schools and colleges, for the provincial and federal governments.

SSP Bahadur said the suspect used to fund the party with whatever amounts he generated from his construction business.

Shaikh also admitted that in 2014 he had buried weapons at an under-construction college. He said the weapons had been supplied by Syed Muhammad Ahmed alias Aleem Nora, a leader of the MQM-London target killing team supported by the Indian network.

Later, the weapons were seized after the suspect identified the building of the Delhi College Karimabad as the location where he had hidden them. Shaikh continued to use his position as a government contractor to transport wanted suspects to the MQM-London. He further disclosed that Ashraf Noor, a member of the MQM-London’s Coordinating Committee, was hiding in the city, and that he had been facilitating the party in relocating and accommodating workers and providing food to them. Based on the information obtained from Shaikh, law enforcers are carrying out raids in different areas of the city to make more arrests.

Man dies in house fire

A man died of suffocation after a fire erupted at his house in Sohrab Goth’s Noor Muhammad Goth on Tuesday. Rescuers transported the body to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for an autopsy where he was identified as Asif. Police said the man had lit a candle during loadshedding and gone to sleep. Suddenly, a piece of cloth caught fire and Asif died from inhaling smoke.

School van catches fire

A school van caught fire near Karsaz on Sharae Faisal. According to the fire brigade department, a fire tender was sent to the scene and extinguished the fire. Fortunately, no injury or loss of life had been reported, police said. It merits mentioning that many vans are plying on different routes without the fitness certificate allegedly in connivance with the regional transport authority.