Police given fortnight to file charge sheet against MQM-L men

The administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts on Monday gave the police two weeks to file the charge sheet against three Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-L) men who were arrested for allegedly operating India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) network in Karachi.

The judge remanded Shahid, Majid and Adil Ansari of the pro-Altaf Hussain MQM-L in judicial custody and directed the investigating officer to file the challan against them in the next hearing on April 20. The city police chief claimed on March 19 to have foiled a major potential terrorism plot as they busted a local network of RAW operated by militants affiliated with the MQM-L.

Additional Inspector General of Police (Addl IGP) Ghulam Nabi Memon said that there had been reports about RAW’s involvement in terrorism in Karachi, about the MQM-L running the intelligence agency’s local network and about the likelihood of them carrying out a major terror activity in the metropolis at any time.

“We found during our investigations that the MQM-L terrorist who received militancy training in India is the ringleader of the RAW network in Karachi,” Memon said while addressing a news conference at the Karachi Police Office in Saddar.

“The ringleader had been involved in terrorism here with his MQM-L colleagues on RAW’s instructions. He had been in touch with former APMSO [All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation] chairman Mehmood Siddiqui, who has been in India for the past many years on RAW’s payroll, and used to despatch funds through hawala-hundi for carrying out terror activities in Karachi,” he said. The group had also been keeping in touch with the MQM-L’s notorious terrorist Safdar Baqri in Canada, he added.

The Addl IGP said the group had been tasked by RAW to provide funds to different terrorist groups in Karachi for carrying out terror activities, to store bombs and other weapons and supply them to different terrorists, to gather information about the city’s sensitive installations, including those of security and intelligence agencies, and share it with the intelligence agency as well as provide updates on the political situation in the metropolis.

He said the group also used to provide RAW’s special funds to Khalid Shamim, a prime suspect in the Imran Farooq murder case, adding that their bank transactions had been traced.