It began with a surprise raid by Rangers at the MQM headquarters Nine Zero in March. Then a former party activist Saulat Mirza dropped a bombshell from the gallows. Then, security agencies claimed they had arrested two men in connection with the murder of the party’s deputy convenor Imran Farooq. A police officer said in an unusual press conference that the party had connections with Indian intelligence agency RAW. And then a report on BBC said MQM leaders had admitted receiving funds from India.
By now, most of the men arrested from Nine Zero have been released on bail, including key MQM leader Aamir Khan. Saulat Mirza has been hanged. The Indian government has denied funding or training MQM operatives. Amid reports that a team of interrogators from the British Scotland Yard and Pakistani FIA are questioning the two men held for Imran Farooq’s murder, the MQM is criticizing what it calls a “media trial”.
Altaf Hussain, the party’s chief, has been breathing fire every now and then. In his last statement, he said any move to remove him from the MQM leadership would turn the streets of Karachi into battlegrounds. Not long ago, he had asked his followers to learn to fight.
Anyone following the news has a good idea of who is leading the law-enforcement operation in Karachi. It is certainly is not the People’s Party government in Sindh. Some say it is not even the federal government led by the PML-N, though it cheers like a spectator from the margins of the actual battlefield.
There is speculation in Islamabad that key officials of MQM will be “brought to justice” or coerced to make create a new faction in the party in order to avoid unnecessary political vacuum. Some said former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal would play a role. But in response to reports that Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf had asked him to join his party, Mustafa Kamal told a TV channel he had “no intentions to re-enter politics”.
“Altaf Hussain and the MQM are inseparable,” says Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, a senior leader of the party. “One cannot live without the other. The ‘minus-Altaf Hussain formula’, whatever it is, cannot be taken seriously.”
Meanwhile, several unauthenticated documents went viral on social media. They seemed to corroborate the BBC report. Among them was a reported statement by Tariq Mir, an MQM leader, to the London police, in which he had allegedly said MQM had taken funds from India. London police said the document was not Tariq Mir’s official police statement, but did not conform or deny if the contents were similar.
Weeks before the report created ripples, a senior police officer had made equally startling allegations against the MQM. He was Senior Superintendent of Police (Malir) Rao Anwar. On May 1, he produced two men before the media and claimed the they belonged to the MQM and had received militant training from RAW.
SSP Rao Anwar told me recently that Bangkok was the pick-up point from where MQM operatives were taken to Delhi’s Darya Ganj locality for militant training, before being sent back to Pakistan. “Our investigation has revealed that a number of people are still receiving training from the Indian intelligence agency,” he said. “The recruits and their handlers belong to the MQM.”
The MQM has denied the allegation, and says if there is evidence, it should be produced in court.
Rao Anwar was not on good terms with the MQM before he made the allegations. He asserts that he was on the party’s ‘hit list’. He took part in a previous operation against the MQM, and killed MQM activist Farooq Patni, also known as Farooq Dada, in an encounter in 1994. In October last year, Farooq Patni’s wife, who is an MPA in the Sindh Assembly, took offense when Sharjeel Memon called him a terrorist. She said it was an extrajudicial killing.
MQM veteran Wasim Akhtar alleged that the SSP was involved in “the extra judicial killing of hundreds of MQM workers”.
Rao Anwar says the media must revisit senior police official Afzal Shigiri’s investigative report about MQM, which he had authored back in 1988.
Owais Toheed, an analyst who looks closely at Karachi affairs, says the MQM has a lot to explain, but admits none of the allegations against the party’s leaders had been proven in courts. There were several cases though, he adds, in which the witnesses were harassed or silenced. Despite serious allegations against the party since its inception, successive governments, including that for Gen Musharraf, allied with the party for political advantage.
The operation is not specific to the MQM. The PPP too has felt the heat after some men believed to be close to the party were arrested on allegations of corruption. Insiders say the next phase would be more arduous, in which hardcore sectarian and proscribed outfits would be taken to task, first in Sindh and then in Punjab.
Shahzad Raza is an Islamabad-based journalist
Twitter: @shahzadrez
By now, most of the men arrested from Nine Zero have been released on bail, including key MQM leader Aamir Khan. Saulat Mirza has been hanged. The Indian government has denied funding or training MQM operatives. Amid reports that a team of interrogators from the British Scotland Yard and Pakistani FIA are questioning the two men held for Imran Farooq’s murder, the MQM is criticizing what it calls a “media trial”.
Altaf Hussain, the party’s chief, has been breathing fire every now and then. In his last statement, he said any move to remove him from the MQM leadership would turn the streets of Karachi into battlegrounds. Not long ago, he had asked his followers to learn to fight.
"Bangkok is the pick-up point"
Anyone following the news has a good idea of who is leading the law-enforcement operation in Karachi. It is certainly is not the People’s Party government in Sindh. Some say it is not even the federal government led by the PML-N, though it cheers like a spectator from the margins of the actual battlefield.
There is speculation in Islamabad that key officials of MQM will be “brought to justice” or coerced to make create a new faction in the party in order to avoid unnecessary political vacuum. Some said former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal would play a role. But in response to reports that Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf had asked him to join his party, Mustafa Kamal told a TV channel he had “no intentions to re-enter politics”.
“Altaf Hussain and the MQM are inseparable,” says Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, a senior leader of the party. “One cannot live without the other. The ‘minus-Altaf Hussain formula’, whatever it is, cannot be taken seriously.”
Meanwhile, several unauthenticated documents went viral on social media. They seemed to corroborate the BBC report. Among them was a reported statement by Tariq Mir, an MQM leader, to the London police, in which he had allegedly said MQM had taken funds from India. London police said the document was not Tariq Mir’s official police statement, but did not conform or deny if the contents were similar.
Weeks before the report created ripples, a senior police officer had made equally startling allegations against the MQM. He was Senior Superintendent of Police (Malir) Rao Anwar. On May 1, he produced two men before the media and claimed the they belonged to the MQM and had received militant training from RAW.
SSP Rao Anwar told me recently that Bangkok was the pick-up point from where MQM operatives were taken to Delhi’s Darya Ganj locality for militant training, before being sent back to Pakistan. “Our investigation has revealed that a number of people are still receiving training from the Indian intelligence agency,” he said. “The recruits and their handlers belong to the MQM.”
The MQM has denied the allegation, and says if there is evidence, it should be produced in court.
Rao Anwar was not on good terms with the MQM before he made the allegations. He asserts that he was on the party’s ‘hit list’. He took part in a previous operation against the MQM, and killed MQM activist Farooq Patni, also known as Farooq Dada, in an encounter in 1994. In October last year, Farooq Patni’s wife, who is an MPA in the Sindh Assembly, took offense when Sharjeel Memon called him a terrorist. She said it was an extrajudicial killing.
MQM veteran Wasim Akhtar alleged that the SSP was involved in “the extra judicial killing of hundreds of MQM workers”.
Rao Anwar says the media must revisit senior police official Afzal Shigiri’s investigative report about MQM, which he had authored back in 1988.
Owais Toheed, an analyst who looks closely at Karachi affairs, says the MQM has a lot to explain, but admits none of the allegations against the party’s leaders had been proven in courts. There were several cases though, he adds, in which the witnesses were harassed or silenced. Despite serious allegations against the party since its inception, successive governments, including that for Gen Musharraf, allied with the party for political advantage.
The operation is not specific to the MQM. The PPP too has felt the heat after some men believed to be close to the party were arrested on allegations of corruption. Insiders say the next phase would be more arduous, in which hardcore sectarian and proscribed outfits would be taken to task, first in Sindh and then in Punjab.
Shahzad Raza is an Islamabad-based journalist
Twitter: @shahzadrez