Home department directs ATC to conduct MQM activist's hearing in prison

Faisal Mota was sentenced to death in journalist Wali Babar's murder case in 2014

KARACHI: Sindh home department directed an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Saturday to conduct Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist Faisal Mota’s hearing in the prison, Express News reported.

Mota was sentenced to death in journalist Wali Babar's murder case in 2014. Then police chief had announced a reward of Rs2 million for anyone who would assist in his arrest. His name was also put on the Exit Control List.

On March 11, the convict was arrested during a raid conducted by Rangers on MQM's Nine-Zero headquarters in Karachi.

Read: One dead, several injured as Rangers raid MQM headquarters

Speaking to The Express Tribune following the raid, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Karachi President Ali Zaidi said “Altaf Hussain has claimed that Rangers brought all the weapons with them, I want to ask him if the Rangers also brought Faisal Mota with them.”

Read: PTI Karachi president supports Rangers raid, lashes out at MQM

ATC had remanded 32 MQM activists into the custody of the paramilitary forces for 90 days soon after the raid. These workers were among more than 100 people detained during the Ranger's pre-dawn operation on MQM headquarters.