Pakistan's MQM 'received Indian funding' - BBC News
By Owen Bennett-Jones
BBC News
The MQM has a loyal support base among the Mohajir community
Officials
in Pakistan's MQM party have told the UK authorities they received
Indian government funds, the BBC learnt from an authoritative Pakistani
source.
UK authorities investigating the MQM for alleged money laundering also found a list of weapons in an MQM property.
A Pakistani official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants over the last 10 years.
The Indian authorities described the claims as "completely baseless". The MQM said it was not going to comment.
With
24 members in the National Assembly, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM)
has long been a dominant force in the politics of Pakistan's largest
city, Karachi.
British authorities held formal recorded
interviews with senior MQM officials who told them the party was
receiving Indian funding, the BBC was told.
Meanwhile a Pakistani
official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM
militants in explosives, weapons and sabotage over the last 10 years in
camps in north and north-east India.
Before 2005-2006 the training was given to a small number of mid-ranking members of the MQM, the official said.
More recently greater numbers of more junior party members have been trained.
The arrest of Altaf Hussain prompted unrest in Karachi
The claims follow the statement
of a senior Karachi police officer that two arrested MQM militants said
they had been trained in India. In April Rao Anwar gave details of how
the two men went to India via Thailand to be trained by the Indian
intelligence agency RAW.
In response MQM leader Altaf Hussain issued a tirade of abuse at Rao Anwar.
Asked
about the claims of Indian funding and training of the MQM, the Indian
High Commission in London said: "Shortcomings of governance cannot be
rationalised by blaming neighbours."
The UK authorities started
investigating the MQM in 2010 when a senior party leader, Imran Farooq,
was stabbed to death outside his home in north London.
In the
course of those inquiries the police found around £500,000 ($787,350) in
the MQM's London offices and in the home of MQM leader Altaf Hussain.
That prompted a second investigation into possible money laundering.
Born in Karachi in 1953 to a middle-class family; studied pharmacy at university.
Formed MQM party in 1984 to represent Mohajirs - descendants of Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan.
Requested political asylum in UK in 1992, later gained British citizenship; continues to run MQM from north London.
In
the course of the inquiries the UK authorities found a list itemising
weapons, including mortars, grenades and bomb-making equipment in an MQM
property, according to Pakistani media reports that the BBC believes to
be credible. The list included prices for the weapons. Asked about the
list, the MQM made no response.
As the UK police investigations
have progressed, the British judiciary has been taking an increasingly
tough line on the MQM. Back in 2011 a British judge adjudicating an
asylum appeal case found that "the MQM has killed over 200 police
officers who have stood up against them in Karachi".
Last year
another British judge hearing another such case found: "There is
overwhelming objective evidence that the MQM for decades had been using
violence."
The MQM is also under pressure in Pakistan. In March
the country's security forces raided the party's Karachi headquarters.
They claimed to have found a significant number of weapons there. The
MQM said they were planted.
The MQM has the ability to put thousands of protesters on the streets of Karachi
The party has a solid support
base made up of the Mohajirs, or refugees who left India at the time of
partition so that they could settle in Pakistan.
The Mohajirs
complain that they have been the subject of sustained discrimination in
Pakistan. The MQM insists it is a peaceful, secular party representing
the interests of the middle classes in Pakistan.
As well as its
electoral base, the MQM has formidable street power. When it orders a
strike the streets empty and the whole of Karachi grinds to a halt.
Altaf
Husain has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK for more than 20
years. He was given a British passport in 2002. For many years the party
has been accused of using violence to impose its will in Karachi.
A
number of MQM officials, including Altaf Hussain, have been arrested in
relation to the money-laundering case but no-one has been charged. The
party insists that all its funds are legitimate and that most of them
come from donors in the business community in Karachi.
India has
long accused Pakistani officials of involvement in sponsoring militant
attacks in India. Delhi, for example, has demanded that Pakistan take
firmer action against those suspected of plotting and managing the
Mumbai attacks of 2008.
The latest developments in the MQM case
suggest that Pakistan will now counter such complaints with demands that
India stop sponsoring violent forces in Karachi.
#LIVEANDLETTOLIVE ایبٹ آباد میں مسلم لیگ اور پی ٹی آئی کے کارکنوں میں تصادم، چار ہلاک بلدیاتی انتخابات کے بعد سے اب تک ہلاکتوں کی کل تعداد 24 ہو گئی ہے پاکستان کے صوبے خیبر پختونخوا میں بلدیاتی انتخابات کے روز سے تشدد کا سلسلہ بدستور جاری ہے اور تازہ واقعے میں ہزارہ ڈویژن کے شہر ایبٹ آباد میں پاکستان تحریک انصاف اور مسلم لیگ (ن) کے کارکنوں کے درمیان جھڑپ میں کم سے کم چار کارکن ہلاک اور ایک زخمی ہوگیا ہے۔ ایبٹ آباد پولیس کے مطابق یہ واقعہ منگل کو شہر سے چند کلومیٹر دور پہاڑی علاقے نگاتی گاؤں میں پیش آیا۔ ایبٹ آباد صدر تھانے کے انچارج پرویز خان نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ بلدیاتی انتخابات میں مسلم لیگ ن کے ہارے ہوئے امیدوار چوہدری ساجد نے جیتنے والے تحریک انصاف کے کارکنوں پر اپنے ساتھیوں سمیت خود کار ہتھیاروں سے حملہ کر دیا۔ انھوں نے کہا کہ حملے میں تحریک انصاف کے چار کارکن ہلاک اور ایک زخمی ہوگیا ہے۔ زخمی ہونے والے شخص کی حالت تشویش ناک بتائی جاتی ہے۔ پولیس...
PM Nawaz Sharif chairs a High level meeting to monitor the implementation of National Action Plan #PMforPeace pic.twitter.com/tVzHg9p9hh — PML(N) [Official] (@pmln_org) January 21, 2015
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