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   MQM seeks removal of IG, Karachi police chief

IG Sindh Salahuddin Babar Khattak addressing a press conference in Karachi.—APP/File

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has called for the removal of the inspector general of Sindh police as well as the Karachi police chief, accusing them of ‘misleading’ the prime minister about the recent violence in the city.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club by phone from London on Friday, MQM coordination committee’s Mohammad Anwar accused IG Salahuddin Babar Khattak and the city police chief, Waseem Ahmed, of ‘patronising the land and drug mafias’.

He alleged that the officials had misled the prime minister at a high-level meeting earlier in the day. He said the Karachi police chief had also given a ‘misleading briefing’ at a meeting chaired by the Sindh chief minister on Thursday and gave an ethnic colour to the violence by revealing the linguistic identities of victims instead of mentioning the involvement of the land and drug mafias.

‘In today’s briefing to the prime minister, both the city police chief and the Sindh IGP tried to hold the MQM responsible for the violence without mentioning the land and drug mafias.’
 
‘The capital city police officer also proposed a house-to-house search in Karachi,’ said Mr Anwar.‘We believe that the CCPO and the IG are patronising the land and drug mafias and, therefore, they did not utter a single word against them in the two meetings.’He said that the failure of police to maintain peace in Lyari showed their incompetence and pointed to the fact that they did not want to take action against the drug mafia.

Mr Anwar said conspiracies were being hatched to launch another operation against the MQM like the one of 1992, instead of taking stern action against criminals who were freely operating in Lyari, Sohrab Goth, Banaras, Manghopir, Quaidabad and other areas.He said the coordination committee had decided that it would take a ‘crucial decision’ if the IG and the CCPO were not removed. ‘We want to make it clear to the government that it will have to eliminate the land and drug mafias if it wants peace in Karachi.’

However, he clarified that he was not giving any ultimatum. Another London-based MQM leader, Anis Ahmed, said the proposal to conduct a house-to-house search was aimed at collecting licensed weapons of the people of Karachi and leaving them unarmed so that they could easily fall prey to the land mafia.

Source.Dawn.com :Report by Azfar-ul-Ashfaque:Saturday, 02 May, 2009