MQM buries founding member Dr Farooq

Muttahida Qaumi Movement rejects transporting body by helicopter.

KARACHI: Hundreds of thousands of mourners made up the funeral procession for Dr Imran Farooq as it snaked down the road from Aisha Manzil towards the Shauhada graveyard.

‘Imran teray khoon se inqilaab ayega!’

Emotions ran high, echoing off the very walls that once reverberated with the celebrations of his electoral victories. Security was tight and the air solemn following the funeral prayers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s slain Convener Dr Imran Farooq at Jinnah Ground, Azizabad, on Saturday.

Despite the passage of close to two months since the MQM leader was killed outside his London flat, the passion among the party workers and sympathisers remained strong, as evident from the entire event.

Draped in the MQM flag, Dr Farooq’s coffin was carried to Shauhada ground in Yaseenabad, and his mortal remains were finally laid to rest after a 51-day wait.

Aside from the sea of people, the slogans, the helicopters hovering overhead gave the entire event an apocalyptic feel.

Social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi who attended the event was quoted in the media as saying that after first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan’s funeral in 1951, Farooq’s was the biggest in Karachi.

Senior MQM leader Faisal Subzwari said the party had been advised to take Farooq’s body aboard a helicopter due to security reasons. But he hinted that such a move could have hurt the party politically. “Had we done that people would have thought that the MQM had become so weak that it couldn’t even ensure that the body of its convener could pass through the streets of Karachi,” he said.

MQM supporters and sympathisers began reaching Jinnah ground from 9 am. Each wore a black ribbon on their arm as they crossed Muqqa chowk. Public buses of routes W-22, Ilyas coaches and private cars were used to shuttle people in from all across the city.

MQM leaders put the turnout at the funeral ceremony at over 200,000.

More than a dozen electronic walk-through gates were installed as the party rightly anticipated a huge pouring in of admirers. To add to the airtight security, pat-down searches was also conducted at a number of spots. Ring after ring of volunteers held hands around the coffin.

Once in, mourners were guided by volunteers to make rows in a disciplined and orderly fashion. As the heat beat down, volunteers offered everyone mineral water bottles.

Volunteers in a special dress code were seen patrolling all roads leading towards the MQM headquarters. All roads and even the lanes leading to the main venue were blocked. Not a single vehicle was allowed to cross the makeshift barriers where volunteers stood on guard. Pedestrians were allowed to move in the area declared the “red zone” and every volunteer was ordered to stick to the SOP designed by the security committee. The entry to the graveyard was also restricted with family members given priority.

The volunteers in and outside Jinnah ground were seen coordinating with officials from the Bomb Disposal Unit and Pakistan Rangers who moved through the ground with gadgets and sniffer dogs.

The MQM’s Faisal Subzwari appreciated the security measures and cooperation extended by the government and federal interior minister who personally supervised the security till the burial was over.

with additional reporting by zeeshan mujahid

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2010.