Counter claim: Umair was subjected to inhuman torture, says Altaf

MQM chief alleges his party workers are being presented as war criminals

KARACHI:

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has claimed that Umair Siddiqui, an MQM worker who has reportedly confessed to the involvement of his party’s activists in the 2012 Baldia factory fire, was never arrested during Rangers’ raid at Nine-Zero on Wednesday.

“The truth is that Umair was arrested on February 15 and was subjected to inhumane torture. When lawyers tried to raise this matter, their appeals were not heeded,” said the MQM chief, while speaking to a television channel by phone from London on Saturday. “The Rangers are misleading people by saying that Umair was arrested from Nine-Zero on March 11,” he said.



Altaf said the MQM supported the targeted operation in Karachi against the Taliban and other militant outfits, sectarian groups, extortionists, target killers and street criminals but now the party was itself being targeted. “The MQM workers arrested during the raid are being presented as war criminals,” he claimed.

Meanwhile the MQM Rabita Committee reacted to a statement of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who on Saturday advised Altaf’s party not to use inappropriate language against the national security institutions.

In a statement issued late Saturday night, the Rabita Committee said leaders from the ruling PML-N have also been criticising the armed forces. Chauhdry Nisar and his party leaders have strongly crictised the armed forces. Why was Nisar silent when Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had used harsh words against the army in the National Assembly, it said.

“The MQM has also supported the army in the operation against the Taliban and militants, and have taken out rallies in its support,” the statement said.


Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2015.