By
Sattar Rind
The Muhajir (migrated people) Qaumi Movement turned into the Muttahida (united) Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ethnic based political party fully propped up by Zia. It has grown into a terrorist organisation that has enormous support in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad along with all cities and towns of the Sindh province following its birth in 1985 among those who migrated to Pakistan.
The MQM’s primary motto was simple. It was for the protection of the rights of migrated people following Pakistan’s independence from India, where they availed themselves of the newly created country’s resources. Gradually however local people had begun to take over their bureaucratic posts and authorities, causing and creating the feeling of having no eternal position in this country.
Soon into MQM’s existence they began fighting with the Pakhtun, Punjabi, Sindhi and Bloch people of Karachi who had lived in the Lyari since it was a small village, Kalachi.
The MQM attempted to gain control of Karachi and apart from Muhajirs, shape a new province accordingly. Thus they insisted that internally placed people should leave Karachi and must stop coming from different areas of Pakistan for the purpose of employment and business.
The party’s aim was initially muted but soon started to make it clear that only those had a right to live were those that will live, die and be buried in Karachi. Any others not even ready to be buried in Karachi had no right to live there and must leave for their own safety.
The MQM effectively started the non Muhajir community, many being killed on a daily basis. It looked as if the MQM were killing people just for the sake of practicing to be experts in killing. They had spared no one, not even their own party workers and leaders who may have been suggesting leader Altaf Hussain be rational.
Many people lost their lives. Karachi, once very peaceful, soon changed into a city that was chaotic, feared and dangerous to live in. Yet, when self-defences had failed, people retaliated against the MQM from which only the Pakhtun proved they were greater experts in killing.
The son of soil-Sindhi lost greatly in the ethnic war, especially in Hyderabad and in mixed population areas, where the Sindhi suffered a great deal.
The Punjabi somehow managed the ensuing damage. They made an alliance with the Pakhtun under the title of Punjabi Pakhtun Ittehad (united Punjabi Pakhtoon party), but the killing has never stopped from the time the MQM came into existence.
In 1988 after the death of General Zia in an air crash, a few Sindhis, mainly doctors, decided to retaliate against the MQM, discriminately killing people from every walk of life in one evening in Hyderabad.
In revenge the MQM began killing Sindhi people in Karachi from early morning the next day. No protection was given by the government whatsoever. Perhaps it was from this that people assumed the incident was planned and managed.
Later it was publicised that the then General Aslam Beg wanted to impose martial law throughout the country and seeked to postpone the scheduled election. The General, along with the National People’s Party leader, the late Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, designed such killings to justify imposing martial law.
In 1992 the new Chief of Army Staff General Asif Nawaz Janjua started an operation against the MQM in Karachi and Hyderabad, under the Nawaz Sharif government, against his will.
This was the first stern action against the MQM. The Army found Nazi style torture cells and other proof against the MQM that it was a terrorist organisation receiving funds and training from India. Many MQM terrorists were killed with many fleeing to South Africa, UK and USA.
The second operation was mounted in 1994 under the Benazir Bhutto government. Many MQM terrorists were killed but the Secretary General of the party and wing commander of the confrontational workers of MQM Dr. Imran Farooq went into hiding for years, only to unpredictably appear in 1999 in the UK.
A few months later when police at London’s Scotland Yard were probing the Dr.Imran Farooq case, news appeared in Pakistani newspapers quoting unknown sources that two suspected killers, Mohsin Ali Syed and Kashif Khan, had been picked up from Karachi airport upon their return from London to Pakistan via Sri Lanka after committing the murder of Dr. Imran Farooq in 2012. However, they were never brought before a court of law and no security agency had ever claimed that these two were held. It was believed that a plan was in place to kill both on the way home to Karachi.
Nevertheless the government has subsequently declared that both suspects had been arrested on entering Pakistan from Afghanistan, at Chaman, Balochistan.
Another person, Muazzam Ali, who was assumed to be the facilitator who arranged the documents for both suspects to enter London, had been arrested in Karachi. All three may be interrogated by Scotland Yard police within days.
On June 27th the BBC reported that one of the MQM leaders, either Tariq Mir or Muhammad Anwer, had confessed that they previously received Indian funding along with weapons and military training to destabilise Pakistan. This is hot news and has echoed around the world.
No one has any doubt as to the news, but what would the outcome be as we have effectively been hearing the same thing since 1990? Simply nothing, I believe.
The MQM will continue to be used for criminal activities as and when required, both now and in the future.
very true this MQM deama should come to an end now
Well written.