The PIB police have booked five Awami National Party (ANP) activists for beating up and holding hostage Aleemur Rehman, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPA.
Police officer Kashif said the FIR No. 130/11 under sections 395, 342 and 337-H2 was registered against ANP Ward No. 2 activists, Sami, Kashif, Mursaleen, Ali Khan and Noor Khan.
According to Rehman’s statement issued on Tuesday, he was on his way to Korangi from Azizabad with his guard and driver when the alleged ANP men intercepted his vehicle on University Road, near Old Sabzi Mandi, and took them to ANP Ward No 2. He said that the men beat him and his guard and snatched his cell phone, wallet and his guard’s rifle before releasing them. Rehman lives in Azizabad and contested the election from constituency PS-124, Korangi.
By Tuesday evening, both the parties had called emergency news conferences at the press club. MQM office-bearers, Moeen Amir Pirzada, Abdul Moeez Farooqui, Muzammal Qureshi, Moeen Khan and Muhammad Aleemur Rehman, warned of a public reaction if the authorities fail to arrest the ANP men. “The ANP militants have the complete backing of the provincial administration and the police,” Rehman claimed.
Rehman said that the ANP cannot be the followers of the nonviolent ideology of their leader, Bacha Khan, despite their claims.
ANP denies its activists are involved
The ANP activists were not involved in the kidnapping of the MQM MPA, said ANP Sindh general secretary Bashir Jan. He was accompanied by Aqeel Najmi, the editor of a local newspaper, who said that the reporters were being implicated.
Najmi said that he and his reporter, Adeel Memon, were kidnapped from Gulshan-e-Iqbal, near the ANP Ward No. 2. “The ANP activists helped us so they are not involved in the case,” he explained.
ANP Sindh president Shahi Syed has been in touch with the federal interior minister who has assured him that an inquiry committee has been formed, he added. “We don’t want to spoil the city’s law and order situation and we don’t want to trouble the public. The situation in Karachi is spoiled for personal means.”
Jan pointed out that the FIR has been registered at PIB Police Station even though ANP Ward No. 2 falls within the jurisdiction of New Town police station.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 1st, 2011.
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