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MQM's bid to pressure govt, army with list of 'executed'

Islamabad - Operation by Rangers has reduced extortion and target killings

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has drawn up a list of 46 members it claims were killed by paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, the first time it has accused the force of a campaign of extrajudicial killings.
The party, which is often accused of indulging in extortion and target killings in the past, has submitted the list to the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ratcheting up pressure on him to make the force, and the military to which it answers, more accountable.
The MQM has accused the military of illegally detaining members before, as the Rangers, who have been praised by the people for bringing peace to Karachi, pursue a major crackdown on terrorism and crime in the volatile port city of 20 million people. But the list raises the stakes by documenting dozens of alleged extrajudicial killings.
Neither the Rangers nor the armed forces responded to requests for comment on the list and Karachi operation, launched in late 2013 to tackle soaring rates of extortion, target killings and kidnappings for ransom.
Police spokesman Qamar Zaib Satti declined to comment, except to say that some cases of alleged extrajudicial killings were being investigated by a directorate set up by the Supreme Court.
Information Minister Pervez Rashid denied the MQM was being singled out. "The Karachi operation is only targeting criminals and not any particular party," he said.
"The prime minister has formed a grievances redressal committee to address the MQM's concerns. Their reservations are of a political nature and they will be addressed politically." Some senior current and former Karachi police officials have admitted to extrajudicial killings during the operation in Karachi, which the MQM has long been accused of running like a mafia state.
While Karachi target killing rates have dropped sharply and many local businesses and ordinary people welcome the Rangers operation, allegations of brutal and illegal methods reinforce the impression of a force acting with impunity.
They have also undermined Sharif, who has struggled to impose his will over the powerful and popular military since coming to power in 2013. Although nuclear-armed Pakistan has been ruled by the military for half its history, Sharif was elected in the country's first democratic transition of power.
"In all 46 cases, they are either killed in fake encounters (shoot-outs) by Rangers or police or they are picked up by them and we find their bodies dumped somewhere days or weeks later," alleged senior MQM leader Nadeem Nusrat. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances referred 35 cases of illegal abductions of MQM workers to the government in May and 20 in August, concluding a "pattern of specific targeting" of the MQM by Rangers.
For their part, law enforcement agencies and many Karachi residents accuse the MQM of racketeering, the abduction, torture and murder of opponents and even its own members and holding the city to ransom by calling mass strikes at will.