FC arrests two suspects involved in Dr Imran Farooq murder

FC spokesperson says suspects arrested in Chaman belong to a political party based in Karachi

QUETTA: The Frontier Corps arrested on Thursday two suspects reportedly involved in MQM leader Imran Farooq's murder from the Pakistan, Afghanistan border town of Chaman.

“The men identified as Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali were arrested on a tip-off,” a FC spokesperson said, adding that the men belong to a political party based in Karachi.

A source, however, said the men were arrested for involvement in Dr Imran Farooq's murder.

Read: Main accomplice in Dr Imran Farooq murder arrested in Karachi: Nisar

The FC spokesperson further said, "We have decided to hand over the men to Federal Investigation Agency after startling revelations."

"The Interior Ministry has been informed about the arrests."

The government has been working on arresting the murderers of the MQM leader for months now.

Read: Imran Farooq murder: ‘Breakthrough likely in next couple of days’

As per a BBC report published in January 2105, the UK authorities had asked Pakistan to trace two suspects believed to have been involved in Farooq’s murder. Documents obtained by BBC Newsnight named the suspects as Mohsin Ali Syed and Mohammed Kashif Khan Kamran.

Farooq was 50 when, on September 16, 2010, he was murdered in Green Lane near his London residence. His autopsy report said he had suffered multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma to the head.

He had gone into hiding in 1992 after a government-mandated military crackdown was launched against the MQM in Karachi. He sought asylum in Britain seven years later.

Further raids

Expanding their investigations, Rangers raided University of Karachi on Thursday evening and confiscated records relating to Mohsin Ali, Express News reported.

According to reports, Ali studied at the department of chemistry in 2007. He used to be an ‘active member of a political party’ then.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, while receiving a briefing from IG FC on the arrests, issued directives to shift both the suspects to Islamabad after initial investigations were completed.

MQM denies association with arrested men

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), in a statement on Thursday evening, denied that the party had any affiliation with either Khalid Shamim or Mohsin Ali Syed.

The party said that for the last four years, there were reports that the men had been arrested and were in the custody of some security agency, but their arrest was only made public today.