February 1999 issue

By Azmat Abbas
The Karachi Connection

A number of MQM activists on the run have taken refuge in Lahore, providing the city's police with an opportunity to earn money as well as fame…

A large number of MQM activists who went into hiding in the aftermath of the murder of noted philanthropist and former governor Sindh, Hakim Said, may have taken refuge in the Punjab. Police sources say that while a substantial number of these activists have fled to the north, a majority may have chosen the Punjab as a safe haven.

Although provincial police departments and intelligence agencies have no accurate information on the number or movement of wanted MQM men hiding outside Karachi, they appear convinced that the country's largest province may be their new base station.

According to intelligence officials, during Nasserullah Babar's infamous but successful clean-up operation, the militant wing of the MQM had carried out extensive surveys in other provinces to locate areas which could be used as hideouts if a similar situation arose again.

Officials say the MQM has developed hideouts in the Rangher areas of the Punjab. "They have fairly well developed hideouts in Kasur, Okara, Lodhran, Khanewal, Multan, Shujaabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Mianwali," says one official. "The topography of these areas makes any major operation difficult and in the event of a clean-up operation in these areas, one can only hope for limited success at best."

In Lahore, various intelligence agencies have so far arrested at least 16 alleged activists of the MQM during raids in Sanda, Krishan Nagar, the Hindu Camp near Islamia College Civil Lines, Said Mitha Bazar inside Lohari Gate, Kot Khawaja Saeed, Township and Mughalpura. The officials say that a majority of the activists arriving in Lahore take refuge in the Hindu Camp or the railway colony in Mughalpura where over 90 per cent of the residents are Urdu-speaking.

Most of them have relatives in Karachi and they have no choice but to entertain any guest referred from there. One alleged militant arrested form the Hindu Camp was nabbed while living with his in-laws.

Similarly, a man whisked away by agencies from Mughalpura was staying with his sister married in Lahore.

The Punjab police claims that it could have shown a better success rate in tracking down these militants had its counterpart in Sindh been more co-operative. The SSP Lahore, Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir, says the Punjab police has no co-ordination with the Karachi police and it has not provided the former with any details about the proclaimed offenders of the MQM who might have escaped to Lahore. More than once, he said, an outlaw killed or arrested in Lahore turned out to be an MQM activist wanted by the Karachi police. Citing examples, he said only July 30, three men made off with 5.71 million rupees in cash from the Liberty market branch of Muslim Commercial Bank. They were tracked down and killed in a shootout.

Later, two of the dacoits were identified as Tahir Saleem and Abdul Qayyum, both from Karachi. Each one of them had several identity cards and passports. When the Karachi police was contacted for more details, it transpired that both Tahir and Qayyum were wanted in several cases of ethnic violence. They were apparently provided shelter by the third dacoit Naeem and had started to operate as a gang in and around Lahore.

In another incident on July 4, four armed robbers forced their way into the residence of prize bond dealer Syed Najamul Hasan in Sanda. They killed Najam on resistance and injured his two sons critically. The locals were quick to respond and managed to nab two of them after a scuffle while the other two escaped.

The arrested robbers were identified as Kamran Qadri and Ziauddin, both residents of Karachi, and reportedly members of the MQM. The arrests were not registered and keeping in line with the Sharif administration's policy, the Lahore police killed both the suspects near Saggian Bridge, Shafiqabad, in a staged encounter on the same night. The other two suspects-Zeeshan and Zafar Iqbal-were arrested over the next few days and kept in illegal confinement at the CIA headquarters in Qila Gujjar Singh for several days. They met the same fate, killed in staged encounters on Khokhar Road, Badami Bagh, on July 15. The SSP claims that these four robbers were also activists of the MQM and had arrived in the city in an attempt to escape arrest.

Mohammad Nadeem Lodhi, sector Incharge of Korangi and in charge of the MQM Shurfa Committee as well as a close aide of terrorist Javed Langra, was arrested by the police on November 19 from the Shalimar Town area. It was not a planned operation and the Lahore police had no idea who they had taken into custody. It was the torture and the threat of death in a staged encounter that made Nadeem talk.

Allegedly involved in the killing of 203 people, including MQM Chairman Azim Ahmad Tariq, Nadeem had moved to Lahore about two months ago. With the help of another MQM activist, Mohammad Sarwar, he formed an eight-member gang which carried out several robberies and dacoities before it was busted when one of its members was arrested and spilled the beans on the rest. At the time of arrest, Nadeem was living with a friend. During a news conference held more than a month after his arrest, Nadeem told reporters that he had shifted to Lahore in a bid to make some money and leave the country.

Another alleged terrorist, Shakir Langra, carrying head-money of several million rupees was arrested by an inspector from Lahore, who is very close to Karachi's new deputy inspector general, Rana Maqbool. Instead of registering the arrest, the inspector contacted the Karachi police. After discussing the matter with his seniors in Karachi, he flew down to the port city with Langra and handed him over, reportedly in exchange for a substantial reward in cash. The Karachi police registered the arrest and claimed the reward.

In the third week of January, four robbers were arrested by the police from a house in Madina Colony. But before the police could register a case against them, the suspects were taken away by officials of an intelligence agency. "They were all teenagers and had the latest weapons. The agency blokes did not even allow us to record the arrest and gather personal information about the robbers. They said those Urdu-speaking boys were dangerous and were wanted by the Karachi police," said an official of the Factory Area police station.

It appears that a lot of MQM activists lying low in Lahore take to crime as a means of supporting themselves and thereby get into trouble. In doing so, they may be adding substantially to Lahore's law and order problem. But they are also proving to be great scapegoats for a police department that is perhaps the most inefficient in the country.