US Ambassador Anne Patterson called on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders at the party’s headquarters here on Monday to offer condolences over the recent murder of party convener Dr Imran Farooq in London.
During Patterson’s visit to Nine-Zero, she met senior leaders of the party and condemned the murder of the MQM convener.The murder is beinginvestigated by Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism branch because of the political dimension to the killing.
The party’s deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar said in the meeting that the burial of Dr Imran Farooq will be decided with the consent of his family. He also shared concerns over party chief Altaf Hussain’s security with the envoy. Earlier on Sunday, MQM chief Altaf Hussain asked his followers “to prepare themselves as powerful quarters have started moving against me. They want to remove Altaf Hussain from your fold”.
In an online message addressed to “comrades of the movement”, he accused “international power brokers of using powerful state institutions like the army, Inter-Services Intelligence and other government agencies to suppress the philosophy of Altaf Hussain” and said that after having failed to do so despite “hatching conspiracies, unleashing a reign of brutality and terror and killing thousands of comrades, the Pakistani establishment, aided by other powerful nations, is trying to eliminate Altaf Hussain”.
In the same meeting with Patterson, Sattar expressed concern over the US court’s verdict against Dr Aafia Siddiqui, demanding her release.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2010.
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