With a history of state-led operations against the Mohajirs, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement suspects the Pakistan military’s role behind the murder of Abidi. Only a fair probe can clear the air

A senior member of a major Pakistani political party, Syed Ali Raza Abidi, was assassinated by unidentified people (Na maloom afraad) who fired at his car outside his Karachi residence on December 25. Apart from being a successful restaurateur, he was a former Member of the National Assembly (MNA), and an ex-leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which later broke into MQM-Pakistan.

In the 1980s, the MQM emerged as the political representative of the Mohajirs, those who migrated from India to Pakistan during Partition. As a Left-leaning party, it later dropped the word Mohajir from its name and changed it to Muttahida, to appeal to a wider base. But the party has constantly been in the crosshairs of Sindhi, Pashtun and Baloch populations as also the politicians in Karachi and Hyderabad — all of which are electoral catchment areas.

In 2017, Abidi had opposed the short-lived alliance between MQM-Pakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) — both being splinter groups of the MQM. Moreover, removing the word MQM itself (embodying its history and legacy) had been a bone of contention among many loyal followers of the movement. (The ‘Pakistan murdabad’ slogan was taken as seditious by the Pakistani establishment and pressure ensued on all to distance themselves from MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who got banned from all media. Journalists, too, couldn’t use his name in their reportage.)

Abidi contested the general election this year from Karachi but suffered defeat at the hands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf president and now Prime Minister, Imran Khan. In September, he resigned from MQM-Pakistan citing “personal reasons.” The Dawn reported that according to the Senior Superintendent Police, South Pir, Muhammad Shah, Abidi’s guard was not trained for the job entrusted to him.

“It’s hard to tell what the motive behind the attack is,” the SSP said. Further, “Whether it is a personal, political or religious issue, it is being investigated from all angles”, he said.

The MQM Coordination Committee (MQM-London) led by its convener Nadeem Ehsan and deputy convener, Qasim Ali Raza, saw red in this attack and called Abidi’s assassination a deep conspiracy by Pakistan’s military establishment to accelerate the genocidal crackdown in Karachi against the Mohajir/MQM movement. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Information Minister, Fawwad Chaudhry, blamed Altaf Hussain to be behind the murder of Abidi. Wherever MQM is used without any qualifier, it means MQM-London,  the Altaf loyalists’ group.

Nadeem Ehsan added that this was not just sheer speculation but the plot of the military establishment had already been exposed. On the one hand, the military establishment is intimidating many high-profile political and non-political personalities, on the other, they have been removing security cover for those under serious threats. Slain Abidi was one such fateful. In a statement, the MQM Coordination Committee said that though the slain Abidi had parted ways with the movement, he was very vocal and never hesitated in expressing his views while making statements. He feared none. Hence, the military establishment couldn’t bear him. His murder is a deep conspiracy and tragedy.

Suspicions of MQM-London might not be without any reason. To explain it, I would digress from the topic and delve into the background of the issue.

Since 1986, nearly 20,000 MQM workers have been arrested. In the 1990s, the brutal ‘Operation Clean-up’ was launched by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with an objective to “cleanse” Karachi city of “anti-social” elements. It circled around the controversy regarding Jinnahpur plan; MQM was accused of being anti-Pakistan and blamed for planning of a separate state, Jinnahpur.

Later, former President Pervez Musharraf normalised relations with the MQM. Crackdown against MQM began again in September 2013, as a part of the “minus three” formula (that has now been successfully implemented with all three — Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Altaf Hussain — effectively sidelined from politics by Pakistan/the military establishment).

The successful implementation of the ‘minus three’ formula by the military establishment, coupled with a weaker Awami National Party (ANP) in Karachi paved the way for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) win in Karachi, including Imran Khan’s own seat. Following 2013, onwards crackdown had more than 130 enforced disappearances and 76 extra-judicial killings.

However, such efforts still could not crush MQM or Altaf Hussain, who remained beyond reach in London. The MQM workers were given a choice during this phase of the crackdown — to either go with the PSP or MQM — Pakistan or any other party. They were asked to distance themselves from Altaf. But this idea could not materialise. From time-to-time the shadow of Altaf propped up in the silhouette of his supporters, much to the chagrin of the establishment.

On December 9, which is observed as the Martyrs’ Day in remembrance of those who lost their lives in such a gory operation by Pakistan’s military establishment, a huge crowd turned out at Altaf’s call and pro-Altaf slogans were chanted. The crowd, that included women, were tear-gassed. They were, however, stopped from paying obeisance. All routes leading to the Jinnah Ground were blocked. Not a single individual was spared — thousands of Mohajir men, women and children were illegally arrested, tear-gassed, tortured and abducted.

The resident editor of The Nation in Karachi, Mansoor Khan, was also mistakenly arrested for he was passing by that area. Such was the indiscriminate nature of the arrests. Given the fact that many Mohajirs are staring at eviction from Government quarters in colonies, a huge crowd turned out in favour of Altaf. Citing a bad law and order situation, the establishment can use it as a ruse to bring in more forces into Karachi for a crackdown on them. Now, Karachi already has paramilitary rangers with a negligible number of Mohajirs in it, along with a horrible human rights’ record. It was probably this that Ehsan Nadeem hinted at. Only an impartial probe will make it clear so as to what actually transpired.

(The writer is an jndependent journalist working on cyber security and the geopolitics of India’s neighbourhood)