KARACHI          -         Both factions of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), one led by Federal Minister for Information Technology and Communication Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and the other by Dr Farooq Sattar, and the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) condemned the demolition of Yadgar-e-Shohada (martyrs monument) by unknown people early in the morning on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference, Siddiqui said his party men were dejected after seeing Yadgar-e-Shohada demolished and urged the authorities to expose those who carried out this “act of terrorism”. “Those who are worried about MQM-P’s progress may have carried out this act,” he said.

Siddiqui was of the view that an ethnic group, which opposed MQM-P’s demand for a new province, cannot be given a clean chit as “we have demanded rights for urban areas of Sindh”. MQM-P Senior Deputy Convener Amir Khan said his party would reconstruct and preserve Yadgar-e-Shohada on its own.

Separately, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Organisation Restoration Committee chief Dr Farooq Sattar said that sentiments of the party workers and martyrs’ families were hurt. He demanded that an impartial inquiry should be held and those involved in the demolition be taken to task.

Likewise, Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal condemned the demolition and said that sentiments of founders of Pakistan’s descendents are linked with Yadgar-e-Shohada. He demanded an inquiry into the incident and arrest of the perpetrators.

A monument built in the memory of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s activists killed over the years near Nine-Zero in Azizabad was partially demolished in the wee hours of Saturday.