Six MQM-London workers arrested
More than five dozen supporters of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London have been booked while the police have also rounded up six of them under charges of chanting anti-Pakistan slogans.
The MQM-London's supporters gathered on Monday in the street number one of Pukka Qila to commemorate Yom-e-Shuhda on the call of the party's London faction.
However, the memorial site at Pukka Qila was surrounded with barbed wires and heavy contingents of Rangers and police prevented MQM-London workers from visiting the site. The supporters claimed that two of their workers, Ahsan Warsi and Akbar Shaikh, were rounded up from Latifabad unit 12 and Khatta Chowk areas, respectively, on the night of December 8.
The police later declared the arrest of six more supporters by Monday afternoon including Muhammad Yameen, Abdul Majeed Qureshi, Muhammad Ashfaq Yousufzai, Muhammad Arsalan Khokhar, Muhammad Akbar Shaikh and Syed Ahsaan. As many as 57 more supporters have also been nominated in the FIR, lodged on the state's complaint at the Fort police station.
The police alleged that they suspects were raising slogans against the country and in support of the party's self-exiled and founding leader Altaf Hussain. More than a hundred supporters of MQM-London had managed to gather for the event. The FIR, registered on complaint of the Sub Inspector Shakir Khan Zai, contains sections 123 A, 124 A and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code as well as section 6/7 of Anti-Terrorism Act.
Workers released
The Karachi Central District Judicial Magistrate has discharged the case of 24 MQM London workers who were arrested from Mukka Chowk, Karachi.
The activists were produced before the court, where defence lawyer Jamal Nasir Panhwar Advocate, argued that the accused had gathered to commemorate party's martyrs' day.
The court observed that the police lacked grounds for physical or judicial remand and instructed the investigating officer (IO) to submit a supplementary challan.
Judge Wajid Ali Channa subsequently discharged the accused, ordering them to submit surety bonds of Rs50,000 each.
The police had arrested the activists for allegedly violating Section 144. However, a case was registered against the accused at Azizabad police station.