Reacting to the Supreme Court's observations earlier on Friday, chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain said that he would respond to the contempt of court notice after consulting with legal and constitutional experts. Urging MQM workers to remain calm and peaceful, he said: "I would ask the MQM workers not to take the law in your hands or protest on this, as Allah is the best redeemer."
He was addressing a large gathering of workers and office-bearers at the Lal Qila Ground in Azizabad, marking the 26th anniversary of the Qasba-Aligarh massacre. Referring to the investigation into the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, Altaf Hussain said that the Scotland Yard had said that they wanted to visit the MQM office. "We asked them to come and take away whatever they wanted. We told them that they may open any cupboard and carry out their investigation. Our conscience is clear and we had earlier also said that we would extend full co-operation to the Scotland Yard in the investigation. People raised a hue and cry that the International Secretariat of the MQM had been raided. Biased commentators on the TV laughed and ridiculed. But no one attempted to discover the truth."
Speaking about the Ali Garh-Qasba tragedy, the MQM chief said that armed "terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons and explosives attacked helpless people in Qasba Colony and Aligarh Colony in Karachi 26 years ago. More than 300 innocent people had been killed in a cold-blooded manner and houses were set on fire. "Terrorists went on a killing spree early in the morning and continued to kill people relentlessly, but no one reached out to help them." This tragedy, he said had not occurred in a foreign country, "but the Islamic Republic of Pakistan". "Police, army and the administration did not come to stop the butchery."
"Twenty-six years have passed but no one responsible for this tragedy has been indicted and brought to book. Were they (the victims) not human beings? If someone says that I am making up a story, I can present solid evidence. I have videos which can be forwarded to the Supreme Court."
"Even though it happened years ago, and the Supreme Court may say that 'we were not present at that time', and that the 'judiciary was not free (back) then', the judiciary is free today, and it can take notice of any unfortunate incident even after the lapse of 50 years."
"Women were raped and killed. When they could not easily take off their jewellery their body parts were cut off in a cruel manner." "No political or religious party, analyst, writer or intellectual ever spoke about these unfortunate events. We bore everything with patience, but we did not raise the slogan against Pakistan. Some said that we should be thrown in the Arabian Sea, but (still) we raised the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad."
Speaking about the killing of people in Lyari in 2011, Altaf Hussain said that innocent people had been singled out and killed in a cold-blooded manner after being identified. They were hacked to pieces and their body parts were strewn across the city after being stuffed in sacks. I had sent videos of these horrific crimes to the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court, which perhaps they could not watch because of their busy schedule."-PR
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