The current head of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Bahali Committee Farooq Sattar said on Wednesday that the allegations against him by a target-killer were baseless.
"We do not have any ties with each other, nor do I know the accused," the former MNA said while at an event organized to express solidarity with the residents of Chishti Nagar.
The target-killer, named Yousuf, given the alias "Thailay Wala" for his effectiveness in putting the people he had been hired to kill in body-bags, had stated in his testimony that the MQM leader had given him shelter. In this testimony, Yousuf claims that the MQM leader helped protect him from law enforcement agencies for the duration of an entire month.
The police are claiming Yousuf is directly involved with the MQM's London chapter (MQM-L), and are calling him an "MQM-L" target killer.
The Karachi Police had earlier on Wednesday informed the media that Yousuf was being charged with target-killing crimes that had been initiated as early as 1995. Arrested by the Rangers in 1996, Yousuf was released just a year later in 1997.
If a court establishes that the evidence is sound, Yousuf's case could mean that MQM's leadership was directly culpable for multiple counts of murder.
