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Agencies fear cracks in MQM as Altaf faces the law in UK - thenews.com.pk
Ansar Abbasi
Thursday, June 05, 2014
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security agencies fear serious cracks developing within the MQM and it is believed that in the near future things would become difficult for the party that has dominated the politics of Urban Sindh for last three decades.
Sources said that the senior authorities have been told by those keeping a close eye on the developments affecting MQM both within Pakistan and in London that the MQM chief Altaf Hussain may be released on bail in the present case but what is maturing up in Britain against Altaf is too serious.
These sources said that not only that the money laundering case against Altaf Hussain is of serious nature but the Scotland Yard Police has also got some “convincing” clues and “evidence” in Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case. These issues are cause of serious concern for the top MQM leadership, which the security agencies sources believe have lost it past control over the party.
“The MQM is no more the same as it used to be in the past,” a senior government source who has his eye on the MQM-related developments told The News. The source said that the MQM chief is in serious trouble in London while his party faces serious divisions within Pakistan.
MQM senior leader Faisal Sabzwari, however, when approached by a staffer of The News said that they do suspect that there are efforts being made by the establishment to divide the party but all such attempts would be foiled as had happened in the past.
Faisal Sabzwari said that such “conspiracies” have been hatched in the past to divide the party but to no avail. “The party is intact and strongly stands behind the ideological leadership of MQM chief Altaf Hussain.”
He said that within the party there is difference of opinion on different issues but once a decision is taken by the party leadership it is followed by all and sundry.
Regarding the arrest of Altaf Hussain in the money laundering case, Faisal said that the MQM chief has been taken into custody for want of interview in the money laundering case. In regard to the Dr Imran Farooq case, the MQM leader said that Altaf Hussain is not a suspect but a witness.
He categorically said that Altaf Hussain has no involvement in Dr Imran Farooq murder case. Instead, he said, the MQM Chief is offering all his cooperation to the British authorities to get to the murderer of Dr Imran Farooq.
Only recently the British detectives investigating the 2010 murder of Imran Farooq in London named two men Tuesday they want to trace in connection with the killing. The Metropolitan Police Service also released photographs of the two suspects - 29-year-old Mohsin Ali Syed and 34-year old Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran.
These two suspects are believed to be in Pakistan. They are reportedly in the custody of the ISI, which had got hold of them upon their arrival at the Karachi airport when they were coming back after completing their “mission”.
According to media reports, the British authorities seek access to these suspects to get on with the Dr Imran murder case. Sources here when asked if the British authorities would be given the access to probe these suspect killers of Dr Imran Farooq, gave no clear answer but it was revealed that the British authorities have already got hold of some key “leads” who have been involved in handling the cases of these two suspects.
British journalist Owen Bennett-Jones had recently claimed in one of his articles that the British and Pakistani authorities seem to have a very clear and detailed understanding of the murder plot; who ordered it and how it was implemented. “A decision to grant access to the UK would need the support not only of Nawaz Sharif but also the ISI which is unlikely to offer anything to the UK without a quid pro quo such as some action against the Baloch leader Harabiyar Marri.”
The British journalist further wrote, “For as long as the access to the two suspects remains unresolved then, short of a senior MQM insider switching sides and giving evidence against his former comrades, it is difficult to see how the murder charges can be advanced.”