LIFE IN DANGER

ILLEGAL ARREST OF MR. AFZAL ANWAR, MPA BELONGING TO THE MQM, BY CHAUDHRY ASLAM WITHOUT ANY CHARGES OR IN THE PRESENCE OF ANY MAGISTRATE

Karachi: January 22, 1999

At around midnight on 21 January 1999, heavy contingent of police, led by notorious police officer Chaudhry Aslam (involved in the extra-judicial executions and illegal arrests of MQM workers and supporters) raided the residence of Mr. Afzal Anwar, Member of Sindh Provincial Assembly (MPA), in Nazimabad, Karachi and arrested him.

According to eyewitness accounts, heavy contingent of police surrounded the house of Mr. Afzal Anwar. Several police personnel led by Chaudhry Aslam forcefully entered into the house without any search warrant or in the presence of a Magistrate. Chaudhry Aslam was totally drunk and was using abusive language towards the MQM and the Mohajirs. He made the entire family to hands up, threatened them of dire consequences, beat them and misbehaved with the female members of the family. The ruthless and drunken Chaudhry Aslam also took out his rage on the small children of Mr. Afzal Anwar and badly beat them. On the pretext of house search, every household item was broken and the entire house ransacked.

It is to be noted that earlier this month, the same police officer had raided the residence of Mr. Afzal Anwar. At that time Mr. Afzal Anwar was not present in the house.

Since the imposition of Governor Rule in the province of Sindh by the Federal Government of Nawaz Sharif, this is the third elected representative belonging to the MQM, who has been arrested on false charges. You may recall that earlier, on November 20, 1998, two elected representatives Mr. Shoaib Bukhari and Mr. Wakeel Ahmed Jamali were arrested during an illegal raid conducted at the Central Office of the MQM in Azizabad, Karachi. Both of them were brutally tortured and at present are being detained at the Central Prison in Karachi.

By the intentions of SHO Chaudhry Aslam, it is strongly feared that the life of Mr. Afzal Anwar is in extreme danger.

SHO Gulbahar arrests MPA Afzal Anwar misbehaves with the family -- Daily News