Altaf Hussain booked in PSP workers’ murder case

PSP Chairman Mustafa Kamal is talking to the media after the funeral of his two party workers. The workers were killed in a gun attack in Karachi on Sunday night. (Photo courtesy: PSP Media)

• Authorities have also brought terrorism charges against MQM’s chief
• Pak Sarzameen Party leaders say their workers will continue to remain peaceful

KARACHI: The self-exiled leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-London), Altaf Hussain, has been booked in the murder case of two workers of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), a political faction that was formed by his former aide, Mustafa Kamal in March 2016.
Muhammad Azhar, a PSP worker belonging to the Nazimabad neighborhood of Karachi, was killed on the spot whereas Muhammad Naeem succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital after three unidentified gunmen entered the party’s office on Sunday night and opened fire on people who were sitting inside, Syed Fahad Hussain, the plaintiff who was also wounded in the firing incident, said in the First Information Report (FIR) of the event on Tuesday.
“The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s founder Altaf Hussain has been booked in the case under Section 302 and on terrorism charges,” Nawaz Brohi, a police officer, told Arab News.
“Our peaceful workers have been martyred by forces that want to disrupt Karachi’s tranquility. We consider it a conspiracy against Pakistan,” PSP President, Anees Qaimkhani, told Arab News, adding that his party workers were attacked when they were peacefully sitting in the office.
Qaimkhani said that he and his party’s chairman, Kamal had formed PSP when “Altaf Hussain’s reign of terror” was still palpable in the city. “Besides the law enforcement agencies, the credit for eradicating that situation goes to PSP since it encouraged its workers to hold a pen instead of a gun,” Qaimkhani said.
“Our workers will remain peaceful, and it is the responsibility of law enforcement agencies to apprehend the culprits,” he added.
Brohi said efforts were afoot to arrest the accused.