The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has alleged that the law-enforcing agencies were carrying out unlawful arrests of MQM workers and subjecting them to brutal torture in captivity.
Addressing a press conference in Khursheed Begum Secretariat of the MQM in Azizabad, the MQM Coordination Committee member Amir Khan said that security personnel in plain clothes were abducting MQM workers from various parts of the metropolis in white double cabin vehicles.
Khan said that the MQM workers were taken to unknown locations and their whereabouts were not disclosed to their family members for months. He further said that they were subjected to inhuman physical torture and were later handed down to police after implicating them in fabricated cases, such as possession of illegal weapons and contraband items.
Khan said that Ajmal Beg s/o Imtiaz Beg, in-charge of MQM unit 24 of Burns Road sector was arrested near a mosque in Railway Colony area of the metropolis.
According to eyewitnesses and reports published in a section of the press, rangers’ personnel were also present at the time of arrests.
Khan said that Beg was subjected to inhuman torture in illegal detention due to which his condition deteriorated. He was not given medical attention despite his critical condition.
He added that the jail authorities did not give any medical help to Beg due to which his condition deteriorated further, thus resulting in loss of breath. He was ultimately shifted to Civil Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries and breathed his last.
Khan also said that the death of Beg was a clear-cut case of extrajudicial murder as his life could have been saved by providing him with timely medical attention. He denounced the murder of Beg and said that the personnel involved in the incident should be brought before the law and given exemplary punishment.
In a separate incident, a worker of Unit UC-5 of Ranchore Line sector was kidnapped by the criminals of Amn Committee and tortured. He was also asked to leave his home within twenty days.
Meanwhile, Khan declared that nine other workers of the MQM also went missing from different parts of metropolis under similar circumstances and their whereabouts could not be traced. He said that if anyone was accused of any wrongdoing or criminal act, they should be dealt with in accordance with the law of the land.
The missing workers included Faheem Riaz s/o Riazul Haque, Farooq Ahmed s/o Zahoor Ahmed, Zeeshan Gul s/o Muneer Gul, Osman Ahmed s/o Ahmed Ali, Saeed s/o Muhammad Hanif, Aftab s/o Syed Amanat Hussain Shah, Muhammad Asif s/o Abdul Basit, Waqaruddin s/o Mukhtaruddin and Muhammad Aslam s/o Abdul Wakeel.
Further, Khan said the MQM workers were being arrested in utter disregard of the law, while adding that the inalienable right of defence was being denied to MQM workers as they were arrested, tortured and killed in utter violation of law.
Khan assured full cooperation from the MQM for restoring durable peace in metropolis, but demanded that action should be taken by the law enforcing agencies.
Khan said it was ironical that the MQM workers were being made to suffer through illegal arrests, detentions and torture, while hardened criminals and terrorists of Lyari gang war were roaming free and were demanding extortion money from members of the business community. Kidnappings for ransom were on the rise but nothing was being done to stop it, he added.
Other members of the Coordination Committee present in the press conference included Haider Abbas Rizvi, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Kunwar Naveed Jamil, Nasreen Jalil, Wasay Jalil, Mian Ateeq, Aslam Shah Afreedi, Khalid Sultan, Adil Khan and Yousuf Shahwani.