MQM, ANP trade allegations

KARACHI – The MQM Coordination Committee has alleged that militants in Karachi have found ‘safe houses’ in ANP-dominated areas, while the ANP termed Muttahida a ‘terrorist outfit’, which it claimed had disturbed the peace of Karachi.
Addressing a crowded Press Conference at Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall at Azizabad on Saturday, the Convenor of Coordination Committee Dr Farooq Sattar claimed that a large number of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants had been arrested from ANP-dominated areas.
The ANP with the help of land, extortion and smuggling mafias was out to destabilise the metropolis, he charged. Sattar said these militants were being arrested by the law-enforcement agencies, which proved that a political outfit was allegedly sheltering them.
He informed the media that Friday’s incident, in which armed men killed an MQM activist and injured seven others in Gulistan-e-Johar, was an act committed by ANP activists.
Sattar said the Sindh government had established Anti-Encroachment Cell which recovered 1,800 acres private and government land from the land mafia and these terrorist acts were meant to frustrate anti-encroachment drive of the government.
He accused the ANP of backing drug mafia, armed mafia and land mafia, and in order to stop operation against land mafia, the activists of ANP had started rioting in Karachi.
He claimed that during the meeting at Governor’s House, which had been held two days ago, the ANP demanded a halt the operation against land mafia, while MQM favoured the stance that the government should take strict action against the mafia.