Investigations: Political worker makes ‘gruesome’ revelations in police custody

Suspect told police the attack on Muhabbat-e-Sindh rally in May 2012 was staged by the party.

KARACHI: The deadly attack on the Muhabbat-e-Sindh rally in May 2012 was devised by the then senior leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), claimed a party worker during police interrogation.

Moreover, barriers in several neighbourhoods across the city were put up on the party's orders to avert raids by law enforcement agencies, MQM worker Amir Ali apparently revealed to the police.

Ali, who was arrested in the March 11 raid at the party's headquarters, was presented before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday. The police submitted that the suspect had confessed to several acts of target killings and terrorism. Two of these confessions were relating to the attack on the anti-Mohajir province rally led by rival political parties and the killing of a man in a scuffle over installing barriers on a street.

The case proceedings were kept confidential as it was heard inside the chamber of the ATC-III judge, Saleem Raza Baloch. The documents submitted by the police to the court, however, narrated a story of gruesome 'revelations'.

According to the report, the suspect, who identified himself as a party worker since 1993, revealed that the attack on the rally was carried out on the orders of Hammad Siddiqi, the then chief of the MQM's Karachi Tanzimi Committee (KTC). The weapons used in the attack on the rally were provided by the Ranchore Line Sector, of which Ali was incharge at the time.

As the rally, led by Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) leader Ayaz Latif Palijo and the defunct Peoples Amn Committee's chief, Uzair Jan Baloch, now a wanted criminal, reached near Jodia Bazar, a dozen suspects, including Mubashir Naqvi, Faisal, Manzoor, Kamran alias Kalia, Amir alias Tarpati, Rizwan and Shehzad Qadri, had already taken positions on the rooftops of surrounding buildings and at adjacent street ends. The suspects opened fire at the participants, killing six people and injuring 22 others.

The suspect also revealed that, in the aftermath of the incident, he along with his absconding accomplice set several vehicles parked in the street on fire to create panic.

In a separate case, the suspect confessed to killing a Peoples Amn Committee elder Jumma Khan Baloch the same year for putting up resistance against the installation of a barrier in a street. The KTC had ordered in 2012 to install barriers in various neighbourhoods to secure streets against raids by police and other law enforcement agencies, the suspect was quoted as saying.

Baloch, their political rival, however, did not allow some men from the Ranchore Line sector to put up a barricade at Baghicha Hashim Khan Street. Infuriated by the confrontation, Ali, being the area incharge, along with five of his men, Arif alias Thunder, Adnan alias Ghatta, Naeemullah alias Mullah, Shehzad Salim and Ikhlas, reached the spot. They found Baloch sitting outside a garage.

As soon as they saw each other, a heated argument ensued which resulted in the death of the 45-year-old. The suspects performed the act publicly to spread terror among all those who were showed resilience against the barriers.

The police sought remand of the suspect in the said cases. Allowing the request, the judge remanded the suspect to police custody for seven days and directed the police officers investigating the cases to submit a progress report on the next hearing on April 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.