HOUSE OF WASIM AKHTAR, MEMBER OF PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF SINDH BELONGING TO THE MQM RAIDED BY POLICE

8 September 1999

Today, at around 6.45 p.m., heavy contingent of police in more than a dozen police mobiles, led by notorious DSP Chaudhry Aslam of Nazimabad Police Station, raided the residence of Mr. Wasim Akhtar, Member of Provincial Assembly of Sindh belonging to the MQM. The raiding party forcibly entered into the house by breaking the front door and climbing the walls. It is to be noted that the residence of Mr. Wasim Akhtar is in Block-2 of PECHS in Karachi, just behind the Dolmens Centre at Tariq Road, whereas the raiding party had came a long way from Nazimabad, Karachi.

DSP Chaudhry Aslam misbehaved and threatened the elderly parents and wife of Mr. Wasim Akhtar. At the time of raid, Mr. Wasim Akhtar's son and his three friends were playing cricket in their house. The raiding party did not even spared them and have arrested them and at present they are being detained at the Nazimabad Police Station. Furthermore, the raiding party molested the women present and ransacked the house. Many valuable items including the furniture have been broken.

Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has called for a peaceful strike on 9 September 1999, throughout the province of Sindh to protest against the extra-judicial executions of two of its workers in Karachi in the early hours of 7 September 1999, by the Police in a fake "police encounter". Ahead of this peaceful strike massive raids and arrests of MQM workers and supporters have been conducted throughout the urban centres of Sindh, particularly in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur etc.

More than 350 MQM workers and supporters have been ruthlessly murdered since the present Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came into power in 1997. Furthermore, this is the third case of extra-judicial killings in the month of September 1999, claiming the lives of 5 innocent MQM workers and supporters.