MQM calls for day of mourning on Thursday
Parts of Karachi shut down hours after the body of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker was found from the Mochko area on Wednesday.
Sohail Ahmed, MQM unit in-charge for society sector 64, had been kidnapped from outside a mosque on December 15 from Bahadurabad. His body was identified at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital on Wednesday, following which MQM workers gathered at the hospital in large numbers.
Shops and petrol pumps were shut in Bahadurabad, Liaquatabad, Tariq Road, Mehmoodabad and other neighbourhoods soon after.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain condemned Sohail’s killing and called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Rizwan Akhtar to take notice of “extrajudicial killings” of MQM workers in the port city.
Talking to reporters, MQM leader Khwaja Izharul Hasan said that Sohail was taken in a van by men introducing themselves as law enforcement personnel, he said. Rabita Committee has time and again reported missing of Sohail Ahmed but to no avail, the MQM leader said.
“After 28 days, Sohail’s bullet-riddled body has been found today. He has received multiple bullet wounds on his head and chest,” Hasan said.
“Continuation of such incidents is the failure of the provincial government … there are elements within police, Rangers and law enforcers conspiring against MQM. More than 35 MQM workers have been killed extra-judicially. We raised our voice on every forum, but the law has failed to protect us,” he added.
MQM would continue registering its protest through democratic means, he said while announcing to observe a day of mourning on Sohail’s killing on Thursday.
