Summary MQM leaders were taken into custody after party workers attacked media houses in Karachi.
KARACHI (Web Desk) – Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders Farooq Sattar, Amir Liaquat, Khawaja Izharul Hassan and others were taken into custody on Monday night after party workers attacked media houses in Karachi, Dunya News reported.
Farooq Sattar and Khawaja Izharul Hassan had arrived at the Press Club to present party’s position over its workers storming private TV channel earlier.
A large number of media personnel were there to cover MQM’s presser; however, the Rangers arrived just ahead of the press conference and barred the MQM leaders from speaking to media.
According to sources, Rangers told Sattar and Izharul Hassan to go with them but the MQM leaders requested to speak to the media for a few minutes first. After denying the request, the Rangers took both leaders in custody.
Laters, the Sindh Rangers launched a full scale crackdown against the MQM, arresting its senior leaders including Amir Liaquat Hussain and others. Party’s Nine Zeror headquarters and its Khurshid Begum Complex were also raided.
It all started after MQM activists clashed with police and ransacked ARY News office in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, leaving at least one man dead and seven others injured.
The violence erupted soon after the powerful exiled leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain, gave a telephone address to his supporters in which he castigated the media for not giving due coverage of his workers.
MQM activists, who had just ended a week-long hunger strike over a government crackdown against them, attacked the ARY station after his address from self-imposed exile in London.
MQM workers also clashed with police on the streets, sparking volleys of gunshots and tear gas in several places across the city, police and witnesses said.
Watch: Rangers take MQM leaders into custody
