MQM lawmaker Manzar Imam's assassin arrested, claim Rangers

Accused, who is allegedly affiliated with MQM, also confessed to killing 12 members of rival political parties

KARACHI: Rangers claimed to have arrested a suspect allegedly involved in the assassination of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) lawmaker Manzar Imam.

According to a statement issued by the Sindh Rangers on Wednesday, the paramilitary force arrested the accused during a raid conducted in the Taiser Town area of Karachi on Tuesday.

The Rangers spokesperson claimed that the accused, identified as Muhammad Ashiq, was also affiliated with the MQM and had confessed of killing MQM legislator and his guards in January 2013.

Read: MQM MPA killed in Karachi

Besides being involved in the murder of MQM MPA, the accused also confessed to killing 12 members of rival political parties and dumping their bodies in different parts of the city using ambulances belonging to MQM’s charity wing Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation, the spokesperson added.

The statement further said the accused was produced before an anti-terrorism court, which placed him under 90-day preventive detention.

Imam, 43, was shot dead in Karachi’s Orangi Town locality on January 17, 2013, along with two police guards and a driver. He was hit by eight bullets in the head, face and chest, causing his immediate death.

Read: Alleged killer of Mufti Shamzai nailed

Soon after the murder of Imam, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the attack.

Corroborating the TTP’s claim, officers investigating the murder revealed that the slain provincial legislator had been on the hit-list of militants over his “collaboration” with law enforcement agencies in apprehending Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members.

Read: Manzar Imam was an anti-Taliban crusader: Police

Investigators told The Express Tribune that in August 2010, Imam had closely coordinated with law-enforcement agencies in arresting the LeJ militants involved in the assassination of another MQM MPA Raza Haider from the same Orangi Town constituency.

They pointed out that Imam had also played a key role in the arrest of five TTP militants allegedly involved in the Ayesha Manzil bomb blast on January 1.

A senior police officer told The Express Tribune that Imam was killed by the Naeem Bukhari group of LeJ, which was also behind Haider’s assassination.

Imam also had a hand in the arrest of Bukhari’s Sindh chapter chief Hafiz Qasim Rasheed in October last year.

“Bukhari is the TTP’s most powerful weapon in Karachi,” CID SSP Fayyaz Khan told The Express Tribune. “The TTP claims responsibility for whatever Bukhari does.”