Anti-state speech: Arrest warrants out for Altaf, 20 MQM leaders

ATC orders police to present suspects in court on Jan 2

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi issued on Tuesday arrest warrants against Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and 20 more party leaders for delivering and facilitating anti-Pakistan speeches.

ATC judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso directed the investigators to present the absconding suspects in the court by January 2, 2016.

Apart from the MQM supremo, the non-bailable warrants have been issued for senior leaders Farooq Sattar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Rehan Hashmi, Rashid Godil, Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Karachi mayor-elect Waseem Akhtar and 14 other leaders.

A number of cases were registered across the country following a controversial telephonic speech by Altaf in July this year. The other MQM leaders were booked for allegedly facilitating and arranging the gathering. MQM’s Rauf Siddiqui has already obtained bail in these cases.

According to the charge sheet, the MQM chief was conspiring to wage war against the state by inciting people. Altaf had criticised the paramilitary Rangers over the ongoing operation in Karachi and cast doubts on the efficiency of the targeted crackdown.

He had accused the Rangers of behaving like a mafia and of treating the people of Karachi like Indian soldiers behaved in Occupied Kashmir.

The gathering of the party members was called a couple of hours after the paramilitary force’s spokesperson announced that details of the raid at MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, would be unveiled soon.

In a pre-dawn raid at Nine Zero on March 11, the Rangers claimed to have arrested a number of wanted criminals and recovering a large cache of unlicensed weapons and ammunition.

In a similar case, an ATC in Gilgit-Baltistan has already sentenced the MQM chief in absentia to a collective 81 years in prison.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.