KARACHI: Karachi was virtually shut down on Saturday as MQM’s murdered leader, Dr Imran Farooq’s body was laid to rest in front of wailing crowds shouting slogans.
The MQM leader was laid to rest at the Shuhda Qabristan in Yasinabad after his body was brought to Karachi from London in the morning. Senior MQM leaders including Dr Farooq Sattar, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Dr Imran Farooq’s widow, children and father were also aboard.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad and Interior Minister Rehman Malik were among those who received the body of the slain MQM leader at the airport. A heavily-guarded convoy took the body in an ambulance to the deceased’s house in Sharifabad and later to Jinnah Ground, near the MQM headquarters, Nine-Zero, where the funeral prayer, led by Maulana Asad Thanvi and attended by thousands, was offered.
Special gates with explosive detectors were erected at Jinnah Ground and a helicopter hovered overhead to monitor the procession and later funeral prayers, AFP reported. City police chief Fayyaz Laghari told AFP that more than 5,000 policemen had guarded the route of the procession, while 1,000 paramilitary rangers had been at the airport to receive the body after it was flown in from Britain.
“A couple of hundreds of thousands of people came to funeral despite fear, threat and security concern,” Faisal Sabzwari, a top MQM leader and provincial minister, told AFP.
Besides senior MQM leaders, PPP’s Pir Mazharul Haq, Waqar Mehdi and Najmi Alam, PML-F’s Imtiaz Shaikh and PML-N’s Nehal Hashmi also attended the funeral prayer.
