Rangers release MQM Rabita Committee member

Izhar Khan was questioned regarding different ‘legal affairs’

KARACHI: The Rangers released on Wednesday Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) coordination committee member Izhar Ahmed Khan after surreptitiously picking him up a day before.

Khan was taken into custody on Tuesday by 'officials in uniform and plainclothes' from Federal B Area in District Central when he was visiting another party member and shifted to an undisclosed location afterwards.

Even though no law enforcement agency had owned the detention of the MQM leader, the party, in a press conference on Tuesday, demanded the safe release of Khan, a "cardiac patient".



The MQM claimed he was rounded up by the Rangers. "Izhar Khan, who was formerly working at the [MQM] London Secretariat, is also a British citizen and his family, which resides in London, has appealed to the British High Commission to help in securing his early and safe release," party leaders said during the press conference.

On Wednesday, the Rangers owned his detention after releasing him.

A statement issued by the paramilitary force said "Izhar Ahmed Khan is being questioned regarding 34 different legal affairs while he is also being provided all facilitates including medical facilities as per law." The statement cautioned that he will be called upon again for interrogation if need be.

Besides hundreds of MQM workers, several party leaders have been detained by the paramilitary force for their suspected involvement in criminal activities in the past.



On March 21 this year, Rangers had picked up senior party leader Shahid Pasha from his residence in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, and released him in May - before the expiry of his 90-day remand- after a recently detained MQM worker died of torture wounds inflicted in custody.

Court proceedings

Earlier on Wednesday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), headed by Justice Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah, issued notices to the Rangers director-general, Sindh home secretary and Gulberg police SHO on a petition seeking Khan's recovery.

The bench called comments from the respondents by July 25 on Khan's sister's petition seeking his recovery.

She said her brother went to meet MQM MPA Abdul Haseeb at his home when eight to 15 men reached there and took him away after introducing themselves as Rangers' officials. She termed his detention unlawful and illegal, and alleged that her brother was being pressured to switch over to a 'newly formed political party'.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2016.