- Farooq Sattar claims workers were in Rangers’ custody since one month
- Rangers’ spokesman rejects MQM’s ‘baseless propaganda’, says MQM members were involved in several targeted killings and were eliminated in a shootout
- MQM announces ‘day of mourning’ on Saturday, appeals traders and transporters to keep businesses shut
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Friday accused Rangers of “extra-judicially” killing four party workers on Thursday night near the Northern Bypass in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area. The paramilitary force has denied the charge.
The Rangers had Thursday night claimed to have killed four suspects in an ‘encounter’ on Northern Bypass near Sohrab Goth.
“They were arrested by Rangers a month ago,” MQM leader Farooq Sattar said, adding that family members of the deceased had identified them as Mohammad Adeel, Kashif Khalil, Shahid Ghulam and Zohaib Ullah.
Sattar said his party had given a list of 150 “disappeared” workers to the prime minister, his cabinet members, Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah and the DG Rangers.
“But no action has so far been taken on our demand and at least four of those 150 workers have been extra judicially killed,” alleged Sattar.
Farooq Sattar said MQM will observe a day of mourning on Saturday, September 12, to protest the alleged extrajudicial killings of its party workers. He requested traders and transporters to support the strike by shutting down their businesses. The party leader further said a protest rally will be staged from Liaquatabad to Mazar-e-Quaid.
On the other hand, the paramilitary force, which has been in charge of the security operation in the city since 2013, in a press release on Friday said MQM’s allegations were “baseless propaganda”.
A Rangers press release said action had been initiated in the area on an intelligence tip-off regarding the presence of suspects allegedly involved in the killing of one advocate Hasnain Bukhari – a senior lawyer from the minority Shia sect and a counsel for several MQM activists, who was killed on March 4, 2015, in Korangi.
On seeing the Rangers, the suspects started shooting at security forces, after which Rangers personnel retaliated. During the exchange of fire, four suspects were killed while a Rangers official was wounded, said the statement.
The Rangers spokesman claimed that all the four men killed on Thursday had been hiding in “safe houses” at MQM’s behest and labelled the party’s allegations an attempt to mislead everyone. He added that the security operation in Karachi would continue “till the elimination of the last target killer, facilitator, sympathiser and financier”.
