RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Interior Min-ister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday said that the law enforcement agencies have arrested the main suspect of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq murder case from Karachi, who will be produced before the court today (Tuesday). Talking to media persons outside the parliament house, he said the suspect were the facilitator in the Imran Farooq’s murder and they had arranged visa, tickets and stay in the UK of the two suspected killers of MQM leader, as both the persons were not having enough money to visit Britain. “The government would soon constitute a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to interrogate the accused,” he said.

Nisar said the investigation of Imran Farooq murder had become a test case both for Pakistan and the UK. The major development in the Imran Farooq murder case came to the fore due to efforts of Pakistani intelligence agencies as they were busy for last one year to hunt down the financier, he said.

To a question, he said the case should not be politicized as it is a murder case of a Pakistani in a broad-day light. He said that whatever information we had, we have provided that to Scotland Yard.

Sources said the name of the main accused is Muazzam Khan who has been arrested by the law enforcement agencies during a joint operation.

Dr Farooq was murdered in 2010 outside his London residence.

AFP adds: Pakistan on Monday announced the arrest of a suspect in connection with the 2010 murder of influential politician Imran Farooq in London, terming it a major breakthrough in the highly-charged case.

Farooq, 50, a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, northwest London, as he returned home from work in September 2010.

Critics of the MQM, the most powerful political force in Karachi, have claimed that the killing of Farooq was linked to an internal dispute in the party, which has been run from London by exiled leader Altaf Hussain for over two decades.

The MQM has strongly denied the claims.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad that intelligence agencies had toiled hard on the case for over a year before making their first arrest.

“Our security agencies and police have been trying to arrest a suspect in Imran Farooq’s murder for a year,” he said.

The suspect was arrested in Karachi, and is due to appear in court on Tuesday, Khan said.

“With the evidence we have, I am confident that there will be quick progress in this case now,” he said, adding that security agencies in Britain and Pakistan were cooperating in the investigation.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the suspect as Muazam Ali, and said he was an immigration consultant accused of making travel arrangements for Farooq’s killers.

British police had made two arrests in connection with the killing but both suspects were later freed on bail. They believe that Farooq was under surveillance in the days and weeks before his murder.

Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over scores of charges including torture and murder related to the MQM’s activities, but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

He was twice elected an MP in Pakistan, but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi.

The arrest came weeks after Pakistan’s paramilitary force raided the MQM’s headquarters in Karachi, confiscating a cache of arms and arresting several activists, including one convicted of murdering a journalist.

The MQM has been the most powerful political party in Karachi since the 1990s, and was once seen as close to the country’s army, which has ruled the country for half its existence. But following the raid and Monday’s arrest, some analysts believe the military establishment may now be seeking to reduce the party’s influence.