KARACHI - Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) coordination committee on Wednesday strongly condemning death of a party worker in police custody has announced two day mourning on Wednesday and Thursday. The announcement was made at a press conference held at Khursheed Begum Secretariat.
MQM coordination committee member Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Arif Khan Advocate and others were present on the occasion.
Addressing the media MQM leaders said that Waseem Dehlvi was a worker of Unit 117 of Balida Town Sector and was arrested along with his two brothers by plainclothes police personnel from their residence in Baldia Town. MQM leaders said that soon after the arrest, higher officials of the police were contacted but no one disclosed his location while Waseem was subjected to torture in custody which is why he died. They demanded exemplary punishment to police personnel responsible for the crime saying that the postmortem report of Waseem Dehlvi had confirmed severe torture and the victim died due to deep injury on the head with an instrument.
MQM said that the targeted operation in Karachi was for elimination of crime but security agencies targeted MQM from the first day. The leaders said that scores of MQM workers and supporters had gone missing while about 190 have been killed after the launch of the targeted operation. They said that at various stages of the operation the LEAs arrested innocent MQM workers and were killed extrajudicially. During the Nine-Zero raid MQM leader Amir Khan was taken by rangers for some formal questioning and it is regrettable that Amir is in Rangers Custody since 88 days.
They said that even the judiciary is not providing justice to people as many petitions regarding missing persons have been filed in courts but nothing has been done.
They said that people are being victimised over their affiliation with MQM. They added that around sixty MQM workers have been arrested in the month of May alone. They said that most of the arrested workers are missing, and no agency is accepting their arrests.
They appealed to transporters, shopkeepers, schools, and all citizens to raise their voice against extrajudicial killings and asked them to keep their business closed.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain has also endorsed the decision of coordination committee for observing two days mourning. He further extended his heartfelt sympathies to bereaved family members and prayed for the departed soul.