KARACHI – In a major breakthrough into the investigations over a spate of violence in Karachi, the Pakistan Rangers announced on Monday that they have arrested eight suspected ‘hitmen’ allegedly involved in attacks on opponents of MQM-London faction.
The hitmen were allegedly involved in attacks on Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party’s (PSP) workers and leaders in Pakistan’s southern metropolis Karachi.
Rangers official, Colonel Faisal Awan detailed in a press conference at the Rangers headquarters in the metropolis that the arrested individuals tie in with the attacks including an IED blast that had taken place at the Mehfil-i-Milad organised by MQM-P in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and indiscriminate firing on PSP’s office in Gulbahar in which two workers had died while two others were injured.
The detained suspects are believed to be involved in the attack on an office of a union council belonging to MQM-P in New Karachi in which a worker Shakeel Ansari had lost his life while another was hurt.
Awan expressed that the suspects were being operated by a South Africa-based individual named Mohammed Saleem Baloch alias Belgium – under the direct supervision of MQM founder Altaf Hussain who lives in exile in London.
The paramilitary force official said that the team of hitmen was also being assisted by some women in the city.
Colonel Awan said that the team was constituted last year to target opponents of MQM-London, especially PSP and MQM-P workers and leaders. According to the Rangers official, the team was intended to sabotage peace and undermine growing political, economic and commercial activities in the city.
“Karachi operation had helped restore peace in the city but certain hostile elements of the country did not like it, he said.
Colonel Awan continued that the weapons used in armed attacks on PSP and MQM-P’s offices had been recovered from the home of one of the held suspects identified as Ali Raza.
Colonel Faisal said that MQM founder Altaf Hussain had threatened the leaders and workers of MQM-P and PSP in his speeches and that the ensuing attacks were a continuation of those comments.
Ali Raza Abidi’s Assassination
Regarding the investigations into the assassination of MQM leader and former MNA, Syed Ali Raza Abidi, the Rangers official said the investigation was underway and that the police’s counter-terrorism department had made significant progress in the case.
