Daily Times

LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain was arrested by Scotland Yard in an early morning raid on Tuesday.

“A man has today, Tuesday, 11 June, been arrested in connection with an investigation into a number of speeches made by an individual associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Pakistan,” read a statement by London’s Metropolitan Police, which did not name Hussain.

“The man, who is aged in his 60s, was arrested at an address in north-west London. He was arrested on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting offences contrary to Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.”

---

Section 44 ‘Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence’:

(1) A person commits an offence if — – (a) he does an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; and – (b) he intends to encourage or assist its commission.

(2) But he is not to be taken to have intended to encourage or assist the commission of an offence merely because such encouragement or assistance was a foreseeable consequence of his act.

---

“He was detained under PACE [Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984] and taken to a south London police station, where he currently remains in police custody,” added the statement.

Meanwhile, MQM sources have confirmed that Altaf Hussain was arrested.

Altaf Hussain’s arrest came in relation to the hate speech of 2016 in which he had urged his followers to take law into their own hands. Also, Altaf Hussain had issues violent threats to former DG Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar.

Hours after Hussain delivered the incendiary speech, MQM workers had attacked the ARY News office in Karachi. Shortly after, the Rangers had detained a handful of senior MQM leaders overnight.

In the days that followed, the Karachi wing of the party led by Farooq Sattar distanced itself from Hussain and the London wing.

Parts of Hussain’s speech that went viral on social media minutes after the violence broke out in Karachi showed that while addressing the MQM workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against “enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of workers”, the MQM supremo had not only raised slogans against Pakistan but also called the country “a cancer for entire world”.

“Pakistan is cancer for the entire world,” he had said. “Pakistan is a headache for the entire world. Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism for the entire world. Who says long live Pakistan…it’s down with Pakistan.”

The minister for the interior at the time had sought assistance from British authorities, and asked them to take action against Hussain for “inciting people of Pakistan to violence”.

FIA has told a private source that the arrest of Altaf Hussain has not been officially communicated. However, a team of Scotland Yard which visited Pakistan had been provided evidence pertaining to money laundering by FIA.

The  MQM founder has been shifted to a police station in Central London.

This is a developing story that is being updated as the situation evolves.