MQM calls for ‘peaceful strike’ in Sindh

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has announced a ‘peaceful shutter-down strike’ in Sindh on Thursday while a day of mourning would be observed across the country.

The MQM took this decision soon after the body of its missing worker was found in Mowach Goth, on the outskirt of Karachi, on Wednesday.

According to the party, the deceased, Sohail Ahmed, who was the in-charge of the PECHS sector unit 64, was allegedly picked up by plain-clothed law enforcement agencies personnel on December 15 last year.



Moreover, all private schools management association president Syed Khalid Shah announced that all the private schools will remain closed on Thursday while Sindh Tajir Ittehad and Karachi Transport Ittehad also backed the MQM’s strike call.

The party alleged that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had held a public meeting in Bahadurabad where an argument broke out between Sohail Ahmed and others and PPP local representative Saeed Chawla, who was present there, threatened him.

Subsequently, according to the MQM, Ahmed was arrested the same night, and his body was found on Wednesday.

In-charge Rabita Committee Qamar Mansoor in a press conference said the Sindh chief minister was directly responsible for the extra-judicial killings of MQM workers by police and law enforcement agencies as the home department belongs to him.

He also appealed to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take notice of the incident.

“Since the PPP came into government in Sindh, they started killing our workers,” he said, adding that some officers of the police, in plain clothes, have been instructed by the government to carry out extra-judicial killings of their activists.



Qamar Mansoor said, “The PPP has given us the message that if we protest and raise our voice, it will carry out killings of our workers.”

The MQM leader warned that if any other worker became victim of the extra-judicial killing then appeals to their workers to remain patient would go unheeded.

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital, MQM’s MPA Khawaja Izharul Hasan said that this was not the first incident when an activist of theirs was subjected to extra-judicial killing.

“We are being punished for raising our voice against extortion and the law and order situation. This seems like political vengeance,” he said, adding that they had raised the issue in the Sindh Assembly as well as registered an FIR on December 16 against his arrest.

Condemning the death, MQM chief Altaf Hussain said that at least 36 workers have become victims of extra judicial killings, while many others have gone missing.

Altaf said the party was being targeted in the name of targeted operation, adding that some agencies were carrying out action against them on the orders of the government and some officers of the law enforcement agencies.

Following the incident, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took notice and demanded an inquiry into the killing. Meanwhile, federal interior minister directed the IG Sindh and Rangers DG to submit a report.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the city as shops and other commercial concerns in the metropolis started closing down after the news about MQM activist’s killing broke.

Police officials also confirmed that the victim was killed after being kidnapped. “He was shot twice in the head and neck but the doctors at the Civil Hospital, Karachi did not find any torture mark on his body,” said Mochko SHO Chaudhry Saleem.

“We also found two empty shells of the 9mm pistol from the crime scene which suggested that he might have been killed at the same spot from where his body was found., he added.

The news of his killing spread in the city like wildfire. Parts of the city including Bahadurabad, PECHS Society, Tariq Road, Saddar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir and New Karachi wore a deserted look.

Moreover, the city’s petrol pumps were also closed after the MQM’s official announced for a mourning call on Thursday (today).

“The men abducted him and took him away with them in a high-roof van soon after he came out after offering Isha prayer at a masjid near to the house,” said victim’s brother Naveed Ahmed.

The family also lodged his kidnapping FIR at the Ferozabad police station.

“Initially, we registered a missing complaint on December 15 but after the family was unable to trace him and he did not return to home, the family on police’s insist finally lodged a kidnapping FIR at my police station on December 19,” said Ferozabad SHO Aurangzeb Khattak.

Extra continent of law enforcers including police and Rangers were deployed across the city to avoid any untoward incident during the MQM’s day of mourning, however, an inquiry committee, headed by District South police chief DIG Khalique Shaikh, was also constituted to probe the incident. (With additional reporting by Faraz Khan).

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2015.