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Non-bailable warrants against Altaf and 24 other MQM leaders

The court also directed that the accused be arrested and produced before the court on January 2.

Islamabad: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for 25 Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders, including the party chief Altaf Hussain on charges of inciting violence, anti-Pakistan comments and promoting hate speech.
According to the charge sheet issued by the court, MQM parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hasan, senior leaders Farooq Sattar, Khushbakht Shujaat, Rasheed Godil and Qamar Mansoor are among the accused.
The court also directed that the accused be arrested and produced before the court on January 2.
The MQM leaders were named in different FIRs by private complainants who alleged that the applicants had attended a public gathering and listened to Altaf Hussain's outburst against the security agencies on July 12 this year. In his speech, Altaf had accused the paramilitary forces of torturing and killing his party workers.
Earlier in September, the ATC had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the MQM chief in the criminal intimidation case registered on the complaint of Colonel Tahir Mehmood of Sindh Rangers. In the FIR, Col Mehmood - who led the paramilitary force in the March 11 predawn raid at Nine Zero, the MQM headquarters in Karachi - maintained that Altaf in a television talk show threatened the officers who were part of the raiding team.
Compiled on the basis of FIRs registered against the MQM leaders at police stations in Malir cantonment, Sukhan, Bin Qasim Town, New Town and Steel Town, Karachi police presented before the ATC a charge sheet in which the MQM leaders were charged under Section 12 (collection of evidence in the absence of accused) of the Criminal Penal Code.
Altaf's July 12 speech was apparently in response to media reports that quoted Rangers sources as saying the paramilitary force was going to release a fact sheet about the March 11 raid on MQM's Nine Zero headquarters in Karachi's Azizabad locality.
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