As Afaq challenges ‘fresh’ case against him, Landhi police registers another

10-year kidnapping case clubbed with new kidnapping and torture one.

KARACHI: Police have booked the chief of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) in a second case just days after a court granted him bail in what he thought was the last case against him.

This time a water board worker named Khalid Hussain has claimed that he was kidnapped and tortured by men who told them they were doing it on the orders of the “chairman” of the MQM-H - that is Afaq Ahmed.

The Landhi police registered FIR No. 244/11 under Sections 342/109/506-B/337-(i) of the Pakistan Penal Code for Hussain on October 7. While Afaq is not mentioned by name, three others are: Raees Topi, Yameen alias Hakla and Ejaz Babu.

Hussain has claimed that the men picked him up near his Landhi house on October 6, tortured him in a house in Quaidabad and then dumped him in the bushes in Ibrahim Hyderi. “Chairman sahib has asked us to punish you and we are doing this on his orders,” said District East SSP Javed Odho while quoting Hussain.

The SSP said that initially the investigations suggested that it was a “fake case” and even the medico-legal examination report did not substantiate the torture claims. Landhi SHO Mazhar Iqbal Awan said that they have not arrested anyone so far but are hunting for the men. They are apparently MQM-H activists and have been involved in several cases in Landhi, Quaidabad and Sharafi Goth.

MQM-H’s Shamshad Ghauri told The Express Tribune that this move was to be condemned. He said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement wanted to ensure that Afaq is never set free. This is not the first time Afaq has been booked for crimes while he was behind bars. He feared more cases would be registered against Afaq as the MQM has rejoined the government.

This was the second case. The first one was a 10-year-old kidnapping for ransom case in which Afaq was arrested on Thursday, just as he was about to walk out after being in prison since 2004.

Second case

Afaq is fighting an old case against him that was activated a few days ago. On Monday, the Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing of his petition to quash the 2001 matter that was kept dormant and activated a few days back.

The bench comprised Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Salman Hamid. Afaq has challenged being implicated in the alleged case of kidnapping for ransom. He maintained that he and his party were being pushed to the wall at the behest of the rival MQM.

He said that he was arrested in April 2004 and has been incarcerated since then along with 1,100 other party workers and supporters. The petitioner maintains that even his lawyer, who was appearing for the workers, Sohail Anjum, was killed and according to the confessions of the alleged target killer Ajmal Pahari, who claims to be associated with the MQM, there was a plan to kill Afaq upon his release from prison.

Afaq maintains that the Sindh police and home department had gone on the record to say in affidavits that except for six cases, no other case was pending against him.

But, it was an abuse of state power to then implicate him in an old case, detain him further just before he got bail.

Referring to the supposed confessions of alleged target killers of a rival party, Afaq said that instead of booking their leaders he was booked in new cases just to advance the political settlement between the PPP and MQM.

The new case was a violation of Articles 15, 17, 19 and 25 of the Constitution, he argued.

Just putting someone’s name in a police case does not mean that they are guilty, Afaq argued. And this was no way to deny anyone, or a political leader. Afaq thus asked the court to quash the proceedings in the case.

After the hearing was adjourned on Monday, the petitioner applied for an urgent hearing after which it was refixed for hearing on Wednesday, October 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.