Zulfiqar directly involved in bloodbath in Karachi

A joint meeting of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Coordination Committee was simultaneously held in Karachi and London after Mirza’s press conference. The committee strongly condemned the allegations levelled by Mirza, calling them false, malicious and disparaging.
The (MQM) Coordination Committee said on Sunday that it was because of PPP leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s patronage of killers, terrorists, extortionists and kidnappers that he kept silent when the Rangers carried out an operation in other parts of Karachi, except Lyari.
In a statement, the MQM committee said when the Rangers moved against criminal elements in Lyari, Zulfiqar Mirza started criticising Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who was overseeing the operation. The committee said it amply demonstrated that Mirza was directly involved in the bloodbath in Karachi.
The committee demanded that President Asif Ali Zardari and the senior leadership of the PPP take serious note of the absurd allegations and explain the party’s position. The MQM committee asserted it was Zulfiqar Mirza who was aiding and abetting killers, terrorists, kidnappers, dacoits and other criminals involved in heinous offences. It said the operations against killers, terrorists, kidnappers and hardened criminals involved inheinous crimes must continue.
The Coordination Committee said Zulfiqar Mirza had been trying to drive a wedge between the permanent residents of Sindh. Following this malicious agenda, Mirza stoked the fire of hatred in Sindh several times, and had once again hatched a vicious conspiracy to kindle the fires of hatred, violence and turmoil in Sindh.
Referring to the allegations, the MQM committee said such allegations had always been levelled against the MQM and subsequently proved wrong. The MQM was accused of Jinnahpur in the past, but those who levelled the allegation later admitted that it was a drama.
The MQM Coordination Committee said Zulfiqar Mirza should have told the nation why the incidents of kidnapping for ransom of the children of businessmen, industrialists, traders and shopkeepers, and extortion started in Karachi soon after he became home minister.
“Zulfiqar Mirza should have informed people who soaked the shopkeepers of Kabari Market in Shershah in blood a few months ago. The accused against which shopkeepers registered the case were handed over to the police in whose office? Who threatened the shopkeepers with murder if they identified the killers?”
It said Zulfiqar Mirza should have also disclosed who was involved in the butchery in Karachi in the past few days. “On whose behest were the Urdu-speaking people abducted and taken to torture cells of the People’s Aman Committee where they were subjected to inhuman torture and their heads cut off?”
The MQM committee said Zulfiqar Mirza should have also informed people about the places from where the kidnapped people were recovered and disclosed who stoked the fire of disturbances in Karachi in collusion with the drug, land and arms mafia.
The Coordination Committee appealed to the public not to be provoked by the malicious and absurd allegations of the former home minister and restrain their emotions. The committee hoped that the conspiracies against the MQM would come to naught, and its enemies would not succeed in their efforts.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Pakistan has said that the statement of senior minister of Sindh Zulfiqar Mirza about Altaf Hussain conspiring with the US to break up Pakistan is beyond comprehension.
The embassy, while abstaining from issuing any comment or giving a reaction to Zulfiqar Mirza’s allegation regarding the disintegration of Pakistan by the US, said that his charge was beyond understanding and a reply would be given after detailed consideration.
Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has constituted a 17-member special parliamentary committee to review matters of security in Karachi and Quetta. The committee will compile its recommendations in 60 days and present them to the NA speaker.
A notification in this regard has been issued by the National Assembly’s Secretariat here on Sunday. The committee will present its report on the Karachi and Balochistan situations within two months, the notification said.
The committee’s members comprise five from the PPP, four from PML-N, three from PML-Q, two from MQM and one member each from JUI-F, ANP and PML-F. The committee comprises PPP’s Khurshid Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Noor Alan, Ayotullah Durrani and Abdul Qadir Patel; PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab, Khawaja Asif, Zahid Hamid and Rana Tanvir; MQM’s Hyder Abbas Rizvi, Khawaja Suhail Mansoor; PML-Q’s Ghaus Bux, Riaz Pirzada, and Zubeida Jalal. In addition, JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PML-F’s Haji Khuda Bux and ANP’s Ghulam Ahmed Bilour have also been named in the committee.