The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters was visited by a police team from London, on Monday, to record the statement of six witnesses under the protection of the Sindh police in the hate speech case. The investigation is being made against Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-London) chief, Altaf Hussain.
According to sources, six officers of the Sindh police could not make it to Islamabad. This had occurred although the FIA had summoned them in a letter sent to the Sindh IGP; seeking their presence along with the relevant record.
The police officers were said to seek more time to record their statement. On August 22, 2016, MQM-London had delivered a fiery speech during his address to the party workers. His words had triggered his workers to vandalise a media office in Karachi and chanted anti-Pakistan slogans. On Saturday, an investigation officer submitted a letter of the FIA’s Counter-terrorism Wing in the Antiterrorism Court (ATC-II), about the arrival of a London Metropolitan police team to investigate the case and gather evidence, if any, against the MQM’s founder, who was now a British national.
The court was informed that a team had arrived in Islamabad. Police officials dealing with the case had been directed to immediately rush to Islamabad, along with material evidence to appear before the London police team.
On April 3, the FIA’s CTW said in a letter addressed to the Sindh police chief, “SO15 Counter Terrorism Command, Metropolitan Police, UK, is conducting an investigation into the speech made by Hussain on August 22, 2016.” “During the speech, comments made by Hussain directly led to the crowd dispersing and attacking media outlets in the near vicinity, which resulted in further violence, including assault on police officers and burning of vehicles, encouraged by comments made by Altaf Hussain,” it added.
Touching upon the arrival of the UK police team in Islamabad on April 6, the letter further maintained, “The aim of the deployment is to retrieve evidence in the form of written testimony from key witnesses to the events, which took place on August 22, 2016.” “The evidence will then be used to present a case to the Crown Prosecution Service to ascertain whether there is sufficient material to progress a prosecution in the UK courts,” FIA noted.
The police officials including SI Abdul Ghaffar, Inspector Hameed Khan, DSP Sardar Kanwar Asif, Inspector Pir Shabbir Haider, Constable Rao Rasheed and Constable Qamar Zaman had been directed to appear before the UK police team.
Sindh police chief was also directed to provide the material evidence with reference to the case including certified copies of the CCTV and video footages of the events, which had occurred on August 22, copies of all scene photography and the exhibits and statements of witnesses, who had taken these photographs, along with relevant materials gathered in Pakistan. Agencies
It may be pertinent to mention that the first hearing of the two cases with reference to August 22, 2016, incidents was held in ATC-II on October 7.Up till now, 51 hearings have taken place.
As many as 60 accused are out on bail in this case, including MQM’s deputy convener, Amir Khan; Qamar Mansoor; Shahid Pasha; Gul Faraz Khattak; Kunwar Naveed Jameel and former leader, Dr Farooq Sattar. Eight other accused, still at large, includes MQM founder; Aslam Afridi; Zakir Qureshi; Rafi Akbar; Akram Rajput; Arif Khan and Javed Kazmi.
Amir Khan and Farooq Sattar had appeared before the ATC after the court directed the Rangers director-general (DG) on May 9, 2017; summoning them before the court.
The accused were indicted in these cases on November 3, 2018. The first witness, Judicial Magistrate Kaleemullah Kalhoro, had recorded his statement on the 49th hearing while the counsel for accused Javed Shaukat was cross-questioned on this statement on the 51st hearing, on Saturday.