Two senior leaders of Mutthaida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have been arrested by Pakistani paramilitary forces during a fresh raid at the party headquarters here for allegedly making hate speeches, raising tensions between the army and the party controlling the city.
Qamar Mansoor and Kaiful Warah, senior members of the MQM's central coordination committee, were arrested last night from Nine Zero headquarters in Azizabad on the charges of "arranging and facilitating hate speeches against the peace of Karachi", Sindh Rangers said in a statement today.
The officers of Sindh Rangers had been targeted in "those violence inciting speeches", it said.
"A list of such facilitators has been finalised and more arrests will be made in near future," said the statement.
The arrests were made after a heavy contingent of Rangers personnel carried out the search operation at party headquarters in Azizabad.
The raid comes days after MQM chief Altaf Hussain criticised Rangers and accused them of violating the army code of conduct.
His remarks evoked a strong reaction from the federal Interior Minister and other political parties and till yesterday more than 100 FIRs have been registered against the MQM chief in different police stations of Karachi and other parts of the southern Sindh province, alleging that he made inflammatory, derogatory and provocative speeches against the armed forces.
Meanwhile, MQM's Central Coordination Committee said that the raid was an attempt to alienate the party.
MQM leader and MNA Farooq Sattar, in a press conference, said "if any political party is isolated, the results of that are never positive."
Earlier in March, security personnel raided the MQM headquarters here in a pre-dawn swoop, prompting protests by party workers across the country.
A MQM party worker was shot dead while several other party workers including a member of MQM's central coordination cell were detained during the raid.
The MQM, which traditionally represents the descendents of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, has remained the single largest party in Karachi for the last three decades and has swept all general elections held in this period.
