Altaf announces protests against Rangers' ‘atrocities’

Demands that Sindh's chief minister, parliamentarians introduce bill to end Rangers' deployment in the province

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday announced that his party will stage a sit-in outside Sindh chief minister's house to protest ‘atrocities’ committed by the Rangers against his party.

Addressing office-bearers of the MQM, the party chief said that the date for the sit-in against atrocities, extra-judicial killings and torture of their workers by the Rangers would be announced by the Rabita Committee later.

Altaf also demanded that Sindh's chief minister and its parliamentarians introduce a bill bringing to an end the Rangers' deployment in the province.

Read: Altaf swears MQM has no connection with Indian spy agency RAW

“If Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and other parliamentarians consider the province as their dharti maa, they should pass the bill of not wanting the Rangers anymore.”

Referring to a recent press release issued by the paramilitary force, which accused the party’s organisational committee of providing militant training to its workers, unit and sector incharges and that they would arrest them, Altaf said the Karachi Tanzeemi Committee (KTC) had been dissolved months ago and was no longer functional.

He lamented that neither the chief minister, nor the judiciary had taken any notice of the Rangers’ allegations, adding that if the courts were independent, action would have been taken against the paramilitary force for arresting men illegally.

Read: Defending arrests: MQM’s administrative wing fuels militancy, says Rangers

Further criticising Rangers, the MQM chief said they should be sent to Kashmir to 'liberate' the disputed region.

“We don’t need motorways and big development projects. We want Kashmir to be liberated. Rangers should be sent to liberate Kashmir,” he said.

Altaf also warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against giving additional powers to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), claiming that such a move could come back to hurt the premier himself.

“We had opposed setting up of special courts in the past by Nawaz Sharif...told him they would be used against him but he did not listen,” he said. “It was one of the special courts that passed a sentence against him.”