Old case: ATC reissues warrants for Altaf Hussain, others

Warrants have been issued against several MQM leaders for the murder of Shahid Hamid

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) re-issued several arrest warrants against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain and other party leaders in a 1997 triple murder case.

The judge repeated non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Altaf, party convener Nadeem Nusrat, London-based leader Sohail Zaidi and Athar after these leaders could not be arrested in the execution of the previously issued warrants.

Last month, the court had issued arrest warrants on the basis of a supplementary charge-sheet filed by the police after 19 years, charging the MQM leaders with instigating the murder of then-managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, Shahid Hamid, his guard and driver.



Police have booked Minhaj Qazi alias Asad, along with his accomplices on allegations of murdering Hamid, his driver and guard in Defence Housing Authority in 1997.

In May last year, the main suspect, MQM worker Saulat Ali Khan, also known as Saulat Mirza, was executed in the Mach Jail in Balochistan. The ATC had sentenced Mirza to death in the triple murder case in 1999.

The arrest warrants for the party leaders were issued on the basis of an investigation report filed by the police during one of the last hearings, in which they charge-sheeted Qazi as one of the alleged shooters.

The report stated that Qazi and Mirza, along with two accomplices, had fired at the victim’s car with Kalashnikov rifles.

They also named the MQM chief, Nusrat and Zaidi as absconders in the supplementary charge-sheet for allegedly instigating the offense.

On Friday, the court learnt that the non-bailable warrants previously issued by it could not be executed, therefore, it re-issued the arrest warrants.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2016.