British authorities are likely to charge Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain with incitement to violence and terrorism, and have sought Pakistan’s help in this regard, a report in the local media said on Wednesday.
According to the report, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is focusing on violence associated with speeches given by Hussain on March 11, 2015 and Aug 22, 2016.
The charges being considered by the British authorities range from encouraging violent disorder, inciting others to commit terrorism outside England and Wales to encouragement of terrorism. Other charges could include intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence. The various offences fall under the Terrorism Act, the Serious Crime Act and the Public Order Act, the report said.
A British document sent to Pakistan on Aug 8 recounts how, after the Aug 22, 2016 speech, some of Hussain’s supporters went on the rampage in Karachi. “Towards the end of the speech, he seemed to be encouraging the audience to go and attack local media stations,” the document says.
According to the report, the protesters attacked the office of a local news channel, ARY News. “As a result of the violence, one person was killed and several others were injured.” The document names the deceased as Arif Saeed.
In the Aug 22 speech, Hussain said: “Pakistan is headache for the entire world. Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism for the entire world. Who says long live Pakistan…it’s down with Pakistan.”
Later in the speech when he asked — “So you are moving to ARY and Samaa [offices] from here…right?” — he received from the crowd a unanimous and loud reply in the affirmative. “So you go to Samaa and ARY today and then refresh [yourself] tomorrow for the Rangers place. And tomorrow we would lock down the Sindh government building which is called Sindh Secretariat.”
According to the report, the CPS document also cites a less well-known speech made on March 11, 2015 following the Rangers’ raid on Nine Zero. After that raid, the document says, Hussain gave a live interview on Geo TV. Reports about the interview indicate that the MQM founder denounced the raid, and said the death of an MQM activist, Waqas Shah, during the raid deeply upset him. He also accused the Rangers of planting the ammunition they seized at Nine Zero.
The report said that the most likely explanation of the CPS’s interest in the otherwise largely forgotten March 11 speech is that nine days later, on March 20, 2015, the Pakistani authorities lodged a complaint to the british authorities requesting that Hussain be investigated for his comments on March 11.
A potentially controversial aspect of the request concerns the death of Waqas Shah during the Nine Zero raid. The British document observes that: “The Rangers have denied that he was killed by them,” and goes on to request: “a statement and any further details from any pathologist regarding the post mortem or cause of death in relation to Mr Waqas Shah.” The MQM has claimed that, in fact, Waqas Shah was killed by the Rangers.
According to the report, the British document observes that: “The Rangers have denied that he was killed by them,” and goes on to request: “a statement and any further details from any pathologist regarding the post mortem or cause of death in relation to Mr Waqas Shah.” The MQM has claimed that, in fact, Waqas Shah was killed by the Rangers.
Earlier this month an MQM worker, Syed Asif Ali, was sentenced to death for the murder of Waqas Shah.
However, the report says that the CPS document appears confused as to the sequence of events on March 11. At one point it states that Waqas Shah was killed during the raid on Nine Zero and before Hussain gave his Geo TV interview. But later it says the death of Waqas Shah followed Hussain’s speech. The distinction would seem crucial to any attempt to prove incitement, the report claimed.
According to the report, the current enquiry into the speeches — called ‘Operation Demerit’ — was established by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command in February this year and brought together two separate units that were looking into possible hate crime offences. Initially Operation Demerit considered six of Altaf Hussain’s speeches but the CPS document indicates that it is now focusing on just two of them.
Asked about the progress of Operation Demerit, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told the media outfit that an International Letter of Request has been sent to Pakistan and said that it is not yet clear how long it will take to decide whether or not to lay charges: “a decision will be made in due course: no time limit has been set.”
According to the media out, the CPS is requesting a significant amount of Pakistani assistance. London is asking Islamabad to provide copies of all the investigation files in relation to both speeches. It is hoping to receive the Sindh Police files, details of the Sindh Counter Terrorism Division investigation files, the FIA files and the Sindh Rangers files. The CPS is also hoping to obtain copies of the speeches and any video of the aftermath that “may help identify criminal offences committed by Mr Hussain”.
The British government also wants details of any suspects arrested in relation to incidents following the two speeches and anything else Pakistan would consider useful to progress the cases in relation to possible incitement.
The report said that the British document makes it clear that any material provided by Pakistan could be used in criminal proceedings in the UK. And it adds that in the future Pakistan could expect to experience similar cooperation from the British government. “I confirm that the assistance required above may be obtained under current English law if in a like case a request for such assistance were made to the authorities in England and Wales,” the document says.
Pakistan has previously made attempts to link the MQM cases to the presence of Baloch separatists in London.
The current investigation into Hussain’s speeches is the only active British police enquiry into MQM-London and its leader.
The report quoted a source close to the investigation as having said that some British officials remain determined that the politics surrounding the various cases should not be allowed to obstruct justice.
Over the last 12 months the British authorities have dropped two large-scale and long-running investigations into MQM-related matters. The first, into possible money laundering offences, had involved the UK police gathering evidence of significant flows of money coming into MQM-London, some of it from Indian sources. The second into the 2010 murder of MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq identified two individuals in Pakistan who were suspected of having travelled to London to carry out the murder.
Both investigations collapsed amidst private expressions of mutual distrust and frustration by the British and Pakistani authorities. The MQM has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to both cases and says the decision to close down the investigations was a vindication of its longstanding protestations of innocence, the report concluded.
