QAT, STP accuse PPP of defending 'terrorist elements'. PHOTO: SHAHID ALI/EXPRESS/FILE
HYDERABAD: Sindhi nationalist leaders condemned the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for defending alleged terrorist elements in Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) after the Rangers raided MQM headquarters Nine Zero on Wednesday.
"When [MQM's] terrorists are arrested, the PPP condemns the Rangers for this act," said Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) president Ayaz Latif Palijo during a press conference on Friday. "It is tantamount to rubbing salt in the wounds of the victims and the families affected by these terrorists."
He claimed that the Sindhi, Baloch, Punjabi, Pashtun, Seraiki and even Urdu-speaking people of Karachi were held hostage by terrorists. "The QAT demands that all terrorists belonging to any religious, sectarian, political or ethnic parties should be arrested, while the peaceful workers should be allowed to continue their non-violent political activities."
Palijo said that peaceful political leaders within the MQM wanted to remove criminal and terrorist elements from the party. "I met two MQM leaders who said that their party could deliver more to the people if they could get rid of these terrorists," he recounted. "But they also expressed their inability to raise their voice against these elements within the party."
He asked the MQM to do away with electoral rigging and intolerance against criticism. He further demanded that public employees involved in criminal cases should be removed from their jobs.
Separately, the Sindhi Taraqi Pasand (STP) party lamented in a press release that instead of praising the Rangers, the PPP was trying to cover up facts.
Claiming that the raid had exposed the MQM, the STP demanded that law enforcement agencies should take action against Karachi's criminals irrespective of their political or religious affiliations.
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