Karachi: The police investigating a case against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Saturday requested to a trial court to pronounce him as a ‘proclaimed absconder’ as he was not within their reach.
Police officials said that the case was registered against Hussain in the Civil Lanes police station which said that he threatened Colonal Tahir Mahmoud of the paramilitary Rangers in the month of March while he was giving an interview to a local television channel after the Rangers carried out a raid on the party headquarters.
The case had been registered under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) as well as 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at the Civil Lines police station in this metropolis.
In his complaint, the Rangers official said that after the Rangers’ crackdown on the MQM headquarter, Hussain, in the interview to the television channel, threatened the raiding team of the Rangers.
On March 11, the Rangers conducted the surprise raid on Nine Zero, the MQM headquarters in Azizabad neighbourhood in central Karachi. Dozens of MQM activists, including Amir Khan, the senior party leader, were arrested in the raid.
The Rangers booked many of the arrested workers in murder and extortion cases whereas Khan was charged for sheltering the assassins and criminals.
Hussain lashed out at the Rangers and the military establishment of the country for suppressing his party through state oppression in a series of speeches he delivered after the raid.
The officials said that the ATC would now issue orders to publish advertisements in the newspapers declaring Hussain a proclaimed absconder.
The MQM chief has been living in exile for 23 years in London after he left Pakistan in 1992 just before an operation began against his party. Many senior party leaders defected from MQM to form the MQM Haqiqi, a rival faction of Hussain’s party. During the operation, hundreds of party workers were killed in gunfights with rivals or in encounters or extra judicial killings by the police.
