Government knows who killed Dr Imran Farooq

• Interior minister pats agencies for arresting Muazzam Ali Khan
• Sources says arrested man could be alleged MQM worker caught from Azizabad

Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Monday said that the primary suspect in Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case has been arrested from Karachi and will be presented in court today (Tuesday).

Without disclosing suspect’s name, the minister told reporters in Islamabad that his identity will be made public when he is presented in court. “Since the past year, our intelligence agencies have been making all-out efforts to arrest the central character behind the incident,” Nisar said.

“The two other men who were suspected [of being involved in the murder], they were poor people,” the minister said, referring to the two Pakistani nationals; 29-year-old Mohsin Ali Syed and 34-year-old Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran, wanted by British authorities investigating the murder.

“They went to England for the first time. Their trip to England, their visas, the courses they were enrolled in and the money to finance the visit — the thousands of pounds in fees that they paid — the man behind the basis of this plot, according to our investigation, has been caught in Karachi by intelligence and security agencies’ operations and through the information provided by UK and Scotland Yard,” he said.

“I have said on multiple occasions that it is not about politics, it is about murder, and the point is to bring those responsible for it before the law,” Nisar said, adding that a JIT will also be formed to investigate the case, and a proper application for that will be submitted in the next two days.

“Due to the international implications and repercussions of the case, federal institutions that have been part of the investigation will also be a part of the JIT,” said the interior minister. “Whatever information we had, we shared it with Scotland Yard and the British government.”

AN MQM MAN?

According to sources, the minister was referring to Moazzam Ali, a man arrested from Azizabad in the last 48 hours with suspected links to the Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM). The party, however, has strongly denied any connection with the two people arrested by Rangers from a house in Azizabad.

MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq, 50, was on his way home from work when he was murdered in Green Lane on September 16, 2010 outside his London home. A post-mortem examination found that he died from multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma to the head. Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over scores of charges including torture and murder but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

He had twice been elected as a lawmaker in Pakistan but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against MQM activists in Karachi.

Last month, Nisar had said in the Parliament that Farooq’s murder as well as a March 11 security raid on the MQM headquarters in Karachi and some subsequent outbursts by the MQM chief Altaf Hussain against Pakistan’s military were discussed when British High Commissioner Philip Barton came to meet him in Islamabad.