‘MQM men’s killings: a case of personal enmity’

Police claim the victims had beaten a colleague a day before.

KARACHI: The case of the abduction and killing of the three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) supporters saw another twist when police investigators revealed that the victims were murdered over a personal matter, contrary to the belief that it was a case of ethnic violence.

Three MQM supporters, Mohammad Farhan, 30, son of Mohammad Faizan, Mehtab, 26, son of Abdul Waheed and Mohammad Tauseef, 24, son of Mohammad Farooq, were killed while Farhan Idrees, 23, was injured when unidentified armed men abducted them in Khokhrapar after which they were blindfolded and shot dead.

In the aftermath of the killings, the victims’ families, accompanied by MQM supporters, staged a sit-in outside Chief Minister House where they accused the outlawed Peoples Amn Committee’s operative for Malir, Sohail Dada, for the murders.

Malir City police registered an FIR No. 138/13 under sections 365, 302, 324/34 against Sohail Dada and eight others on the complaint of the victim’s co-worker, Javed Saeed.

The police claim to have arrested the victim’s colleagues, Rehmatullah Khaskheli and Ashiq. SP Irfan Bhutto told The Express Tribune that the deceased, Farhan and Tauseef, along with another colleague, Hassan aka Nana, had beaten Khaskheli a day before the incident. “Khaskheli and the victims worked at the same factory,” he explained. “A day before the incident, Khaskheli missed his designated bus so he climbed onto the victims’ bus and took a seat. This was against the factory rules.” The officer added that the victims beat Khaskheli for taking the seat. Later, Khaskheli approached Sohail Dada and narrated the story to him.

“The next day, Dada sent his men to the site where they identified the victims by checking their National Identity Cards and took them away,” said SP Bhutto. “Farhan, Tauseef and Hassan Nana were originally on the gangsters’ target list, however, since there were two men named Farhan on the bus, the gangsters abducted both of them.

They also kidnapped Mehtab when he tried to stop them from taking the former three.” He added that Hassan Nana managed to escape the same fate as he had already left in another bus that day.

Two factory workers have been apprehended so far while the police is conducting raids to arrest the prime suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2013.