Crying foul: MQM worker wins freedom after 10 hours in detention

The personnel who arrested Aziz were first rewarded by AIG Hayat and then suspended by Sindh IG.

KARACHI:

The worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Fahad Aziz, who had been arrested by the police while on the way home from his wedding party on Saturday night, was released on bail on Sunday.

Speaking at the hospital where he is currently undergoing treatment, Aziz claimed that, “They tortured me and gave me electric shocks, forcing me to confess to a criminal activity. They subjected me to severe torture when I refused to admit to the crime that I never committed.” He was brought to the Darul Sehat Hospital after having been detained by the police for about 10 hours.

Aziz is associated with the MQM’s Korangi sector and was an aspiring candidate for the upcoming local bodies elections. On Saturday night, as he was on the way home from his wedding party, along with his bride, family and relatives, law enforcers intercepted the convoy on Shah Faisal Bridge and whisked him along with his driver away to an undisclosed location.

Initially, the police and Rangers denied any knowledge of his detention. A few hours later, however, the district East police confirmed his arrest. “He was apprehended under Section 54 of the CrPC which gives police the power to arrest any person over suspicion and detain them for 24 hours,” Shah Faisal SP Ali Asif told The Express Tribune. On early Sunday morning, the police admitted Fahad Aziz to the hospital without informing anyone and later released him on personal bond. Police officials said that he was detained over suspicion of his involvement in the murders of four police personnel, besides other heinous crimes.

Following the arrest, Fahad’s relatives, accompanied by MQM leaders, reached the Karachi Press Club to protest the arrest. “My husband is not a criminal. The police are trying to implicate him by forcing him to confess to crimes he did not commit,” said his newly-wedded wife, Kishwar. “They (police) have played with our honour and respect. They have defamed us in society. They should be punished for it.”

Soon after the police had disclosed the arrest, Karachi additional IG Shahid Hayat had announced cash awards and certificates for the four personnel who had arrested Aziz. Sindh IGP Shahid Nadeem Baloch later suspended the four policemen and ordered to constitute an investigation team, led by district East SSP, to inquire into the allegations of torture by Aziz. The team will work under the supervision of district East DIG.

This was the third incident to have occurred during the ongoing targeted operation in which an MQM worker was arrested and then released later by the police. Earlier, MQM MPA Nadeem Hashmi and former town nazim, Osama Qadri, were arrested but later released by the police apparently due to lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the MQM’s chief, Altaf Hussain appealed to the Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Shareef and ISI chief Zaheerul Islam to intervene and stop the injustice being meted out to the Mohajir community.

“I am begging the chief of army staff and ISI chief to play their role for national security,” he said. “The mohajirs are not conspirators, they are patriotic Pakistanis.” Hussain made this appeal while addressing a press conference via telephone at the Khursheed Begum Secretariat, Azizabad, on Saturday.

Accusing the law enforcement agencies, including the police and Rangers of extra-judicial killings of MQM activists, he said that the LEAs were arresting people of the Mohajir community. “The practice of giving third degree torture and carrying out extrajudicial killings is undemocratic treatment being meted out to Mohajirs in the garb of democracy,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2014.