PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement — Pakistan MPA Kamran Farooqui was taken into custody during a predawn raid at his residence in North Nazimabad on Thursday.
Farooqui, who was elected an MPA from the PS-111 constituency of Karachi’s old city areas, was asleep at his residence when law enforcers conducted a raid. He was arrested and shifted to an undisclosed location.
Sources in the party said that Farooqui was accused of being involved in the May 12 mayhem as well as murders of members of Lyari’s notorious gangster Uzair Baloch group during ethnic clashes in 2012 between the MQM and the Lyari-based gangsters. Farooqui is likely to be produced before an anti-terrorism court in a day or two.
Earlier in June, paramilitary troops surrounded MQM-Pakistan chief Farooq Sattar’s residence in PIB Colony looking for Farooqui but could not find him. The party leadership was then asked by the Rangers to send him to the Rangers Headquarters to record his statement but Farooqui had gone missing before the splitting of the MQM.
The Rangers or the police did not disclose his detention. However, MQM-Pakistan expressed concerns over Farooqui’s arrest. The party said that he should not be subjected to torture during custody and should be provided all legal assistance.
“This is not the first time when our assembly members or leaders are arrested in fake cases of May 12 carnage, but one by one, all of them were released from courts,” said the party’s spokesperson. The spokesperson demanded that Farooqui not be implicated in false cases and be released.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2016.
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