Saturday, Feb 08, 2014
Karachi: Urban areas in the Sindh province, including Karachi, shut down as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) mourned the extra-judicial killings of its workers by law enforcement agencies.
The MQM called for a strike after Salman Noorudin, a party worker, was found dead after being allegedly picked up by police and tortured.
Transportation agencies and traders kept their businesses closed over the weekend in mourning. Universities postponed their examinations and schools announced their closure.
The cities of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Nawabshah, and Sukkur also observed the mourning period.
However, life returned to normal after the MQM asked the transportation agencies and traders to resume business in the afternoon.
Altaf Hussain, the MQM chief in self exile, expressed his gratitude to the people, CNG and petrol stations owners, and transportation agencies for supporting the party in observing the mourning period. He demanded that authorities hold an inquiry into the extra-judicial killing of Nooruddin and other innocent MQM workers.
In a statement, he said that police and law enforcement officials, under whose instructions the party workers had been allegedly killed, should be brought to book.
Hussain also expressed regret that the authorities turned a deaf ear on his calls for remedial actions. In the statement, he said that he personally telephoned the chief minister of the province, the director general of the paramilitary rangers, and other high-ranking official to inform them about the killings but no one responded.
Earlier, in a press conference, Haider Abbas Rizvi, a party leader, called on authorities to set up a judicial commission to probe the extra judicial killings of MQM workers and activists. He said that MQM workers were being victimised under the pretext of operations against criminals.
The MQM leader also raised the issue of the 45 missing party activists, saying no one knew if they were alive or dead.
Nasreen Jalil, another senior party leader, demanded that a first information report for Nooruddin’s murder be registered against the city police chief.
A police spokesman said in response to the agitation and call for strikes that additional inspector general of police Shahid Hayat had ordered an inquiry into the matter. He said that if any anomaly was found out then severe action would be taken.
By Mohammad Ashraf Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
