Rangers conducted a targetted raid at Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters Nine-Zero in Azizabad early on Friday morning, arresting Rabita Committee in charge Kaiful Warah and committee member Qamar Mansoor. The two MQM leaders were reportedly taken into custody for arranging and facilitating hate speeches that were “against peace in Karachi.” Rangers sealed all roads leading to Nine-Zero before raiding party offices and Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall. They detained and questioned several MQM officials before taking Mansoor and Warah into custody.During the search operation the surrounding houses were sealed and residents were barred from leaving the area. MQM claimed no search warrants were produced even as officials rummaged through various offices and confiscated documents. If the objective was to arrest and indict senior MQM Rabita Committee members for ‘spreading hate speech’, a pre-dawn raid in full military regalia coupled with a complete search of the premises seems a tad excessive. Indicting them for “arranging and facilitating hate speeches against the peace of Karachi” – essentially just receiving and broadcasting calls from Altaf Hussain – is an exaggerated and vague charge, especially when no one really seems to consider Altaf Hussain’s protests hate speech. Criticising the Rangers, a government institution, for overstepping its mandate, and claiming victimisation at the hands of the said institution, is not hate speech, it is plain political discourse. It happens on a daily basis on Pakistani media, where no institute or individual is safe from scrutiny. One hopes that the Rangers had dealt with the other, more serious crimes in Karachi, before taking a veritable army to arrest two men for picking up a phone call.The raid increasingly seems like an act of retribution: the Rangers flexing their muscles after being criticised by the MQM chief. By doing so the Rangers perfectly fit the description the MQM is projecting- that they are a group that has personal enmity against the MQM. It is true that elements in the MQM need to be brought to justice, but this must be done with diligence and circumspection, not with brash actions and bravado.
pk.shafaqna.com
Rangers another raid on Nine zero: MQM in hot waters
