London: British police arrested the exiled leader of the Pakistan political party MQM, Altaf Hussain, in London early Tuesday on suspicion of money-laundering, the BBC reported.
A police spokesman said a 60-year-old man was arrested during an early morning raid on a house in northwest London but declined to confirm his identity.
He said special operations officers were continuing to search the property but no further details were immediately available.
Hussain, head of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that rules Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, lives in exile in London and is wanted for an unrelated murder case in Pakistan.
Born in Karachi in 1953 and trained as a pharmacist, he has lived in the UK since 1991. He had requested political asylum in UK in 1992, saying he would be killed if he continued to live in Pakistan.
He later obtained British citizenship and continues to run MQM from north London.
Scotland Yard declined to confirm the name of the person arrested. Pakistani media, however, such as the Express Tribune and Dawn websites, claimed it is Hussain.
Scotland Yard, in a brief statement to Aljazeera, said: "Officers are at present searching the address. Not prepared to discuss further at this stage."
