KARACHI, 20 April — Most leaders and activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz went into hiding after police arrested some 100 workers of the two parties in an early morning swoop yesterday. Atif, son of Aftab Sheikh, an important member of the MQM Coordination Committee, went missing from his apartment in Karachi. A party press release said Nasreen Jalil, a key MQM leader, contacted Brig. Junaid, the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence in Karachi, and Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider in Islamabad to know Atif’s whereabouts. Reports said Atif, a young doctor, was forced to drive his car to unknown destination by two plainclothes men. Hours later former Sindh Assembly member Zafar Rajput was arrested from his house in Hyderabad. Raids were conducted simultaneously in Karachi and Hyderabad to arrest leaders and activists of the two parties. But by that time most MQM leaders had gone underground. “We can organize protests from our hide-outs” said an MQM leader. Sources said intelligence agencies had planned arrest of some 200 prominent people of the two parties, but succeeded in arresting only a handful of them. In a statement from London, MQM leader Altaf Hussain thanked the people of Sindh for making the strike a great success. He said the fact that rural and urban areas of the province had demonstrated solidarity showed that those living in Sindh were now united for their cause. “No conspiracy can now succeed against them,” Altaf said.