Shumaila Farooq, widow of slain Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq, on Monday told an Islamabad anti-terrorism court (ATC) that she had met two former members of the MQM’s student wing who were in London to allegedly kill her husband.
Shumaila provided her witness statement from London’s Hendon Magistrates’ Court via video link.
She confirmed meeting accused Mohsin Ali Syed and Kashif Khan Kamran, who had allegedly approached her husband introducing themselves as Dr Farooq’s ‘fans and followers’.
A team of Scotland Yard officers has been in Islamabad for a week to facilitate the trial taking place in both London and Pakistan after the UK and Pakistan decided to cooperate and the UK sent the entire murder case file to Pakistan for the trial of the murder plotters.
Shumaila Imran confirmed in her statement that her husband did not suspect that Mohsin Ali Syed and his accomplice were intending to harm him.
She gave her full account of the events that led to the killing of her husband, his fallout with MQM leader Altaf Hussain and several other senior members of the party who were not happy with Dr Imran Farooq.
A police officer who was amongst the first to be at the scene of murder and the doctor who saw Dr Farooq soon after the fatal attack have also given their witness statements before the prosecutors in Islamabad.
Shumaila Farooq has also confirmed the contents of her statements on what happened on September 16, 2010, when her husband was stabbed to death outside his home in Edgware.
After Shumaila, neighbours of the former MQM leader, who saw suspects Mohsin Ali Syed and Kashif Khan Kamran attack Dr Imran Farooq with bricks and knives, will also be questioned.
Witnesses also include two English neighbours who were then children, playing in the garden. They claim to have witnessed how the MQM’s founding leader was killed. The local coroner and police detectives will also provide their statements through video link.
Last year, Pakistan’s lawyer in the UK for the murder case, Toby Cadman, said Britain had handed “compelling evidence” to Islamabad.
Cadman had said that those involved in the murder and conspiracy of the MQM’s slain founding leader, Dr Imran Farooq, would not be able to get away from justice — nine years after the assassination.
