Court issues non-bailable warrants against Altaf

Police presents charge sheet against MQM chief for threatening Rangers

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court issued on Wednesday non-bailable warrants of arrest against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain in a criminal intimidation case registered against him on the complaint of Colonel Tahir Mehmood of the Sindh Rangers.

Police presented the charge sheet of the case before the court on completing the investigations and requested the judge to issue warrants of arrest against Altaf Husain. Police have declared the self-exiled MQM chief absconder.

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ATC-III Judge Saleem Raza Baloch accepted the charge sheet and ordered the police to make efforts to present Altaf on August 20.  There are nine witnesses named in the charge sheet including the TV host who carried out the interview.

The case was registered at the Civil Lines police station against the MQM chief under Section 506-B (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Col Mehmood lodged the case on March 17, as he complained that Altaf in a live interview with a journalist extended threat to the Rangers officers who had conducted a pre-dawn raid on the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero on May 12.

In the FIR Altaf was quoted as saying: “Jin afsaran ne mere ghar par chapa mara woh Rangers ke afsaran thay, woh thay, woh ab thay hogaye,” (The officers who have raided my house, they ‘were’ Rangers officers, they have become things of past). Altaf had clearly intimidated the Rangers personnel.

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The said interview was aired hours after the large scale raid at the Nine Zero in which the paramilitary force claimed to have arrested a number of wanted, convicted and other criminals involved in the targeted killings around the city and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, as shown to the media.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.