Muttahida Qaumi Movement brings Karachi to a halt over slain worker

Karachi: Business and educational institutions remained closed in Karachi on Friday and most means of public transport stayed off the roads as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement mourned the killing of one of its workers who had been reported missing weeks ago. The man’s body was found dumped along a roadside.

Shops, markets, fuel stations were shut following a mourning call issued by the party but commuters were hit the hardest.

Federal Urdu University, Sindh Secondary School and Technical Boards called off examinations that were scheduled for Friday. The Matriculation board also cancelled examinations that were to be held for “special children.”

However, following Friday prayers, the MQM appealed to businesses and petrol pump associations besides transport service providers to resume their activities after party officials registered their complaints with the government.

MQM announced a day of mourning and strike to protest the murder of its worker, identified as Asif, who was apparently abducted in April while returning home from work. His body was found near Steel Town on Thursday.

In a press conference, MQM leader Khalid Maqbool Seddiqi said that that no civilian or military organisation was authorised to kill an arrested man. He alleged that MQM workers being killed extra-judicially.

Seddiqi claimed that the events in Karachi had started looking eerily similar to the disappearances of Baloch youth who later ended up dead in suspicious circumstances.

The party claims that at least eight of its workers have been missing for quite some time and it blames the security organisations for carrying out a campaign of extra-judicial arrests against its activists.

The newly-elected chief minister of Balochistan expressed his deep concern over the number of missing person cases in the western province while addressing the media at Quetta Press Club. Abdul Malek Baloch also expressed his solidarity with families of the missing persons who had assembled outside the press club. Dozens of protesting families were camped outside demanding that their relatives be freed forwith.

Meanwhile, some 400 soldiers and paramilitary forces launched an operation in the areas of the Northern Bypass. Backed by intelligence agencies, the operation is aimed at hideouts of proscribed groups.