KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s 5 more offices were crushed down and 196 were sealed by the Rangers after the crackdown on the party, after the arrest of three suspected hitmen belonging to the “MQM London secretariat” and as many women activists on Friday for allegedly attacking media houses.
Five MQM unit offices in the Bhains Colony, Quaidabad, Tariq bin Ziyad Society, Ahsanabad and Mosamiyat areas were bulldozed.
SSP Malir Rao Anwar said “The action has been taken on orders from the Sindh chief minister [Murad Ali Shah],” he said, adding that there was a crackdown underway across the city against such offices built illegally on amenity plots.
“We have put up a Pakistan flag on each demolished site to give message that the law enforcement agencies will knock down anything that stood against the sovereignty of this country,” he said.
A Chief Minister’s House official affirmed that Murad Ali Shah had requested authorities a couple days prior’ to expel infringements on parks and destroy political offices based on these spots. He, however, said the request was not linked to action against a specific organization or party however against all components who were unlawfully involving amenity land.
According to some media reports, similar action will be taken against party offices established in government offices and in educational institutions. This, however, could not be confirmed independently.
10 offices had been razed in the course of recent two days, officials said, that the sealed offices would likewise meet the same destiny. They included that the action was being made, because the MQM offices were built on infringed land.
Meanwhile, MQM banners and posters of the picture of party’s boss Altaf Hussain were removed from Nine Zero headquarters in Karachi, – including Jinnah Ground and Mukka Chowk – and a few neighborhoods in Hyderabad. A MQM statement said the action was done by unidentified people.