The funeral prayers for the slain MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq were held in Hendon, north-west London, on Thursday attended by a large number of party activists. Unidentified assailants murdered the former secretary-general of MQM on September 16 near his home in Green Lane, Edgware. The British Police have launched the murder investigation but the killers remain at large.
Prominent among those present at the Hendon Mosque and Islamic Centre were party leader Altaf Hussain, Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Farooq Sattar, Deputy High Commissioner Asif Durrani and MQM leaders MNA Haider Abbasi Rizvi, Mustafa Kamal, Raza Haroon, Wasay Jalil, father of late Dr Farooq, his brother and other relatives. The body of the departed leader will be flown to Karachi by a PIA flight on Friday evening and burial will take place on Saturday.
In his brief chat with the waiting media persons, party leader Altaf Hussain expressed his deepest sorrow over the murder of Dr Farooq and praised his selfless services for the cause of the party. He termed his death as the biggest loss to the party. Hussain expressed confidence that the British Police would soon succeed in tracking down the killers of the MQM activist. The body of late Dr Farooq was brought in a wooden casket from the mortuary to the mosque.