Pakistan claims aresst of suspect in politician's London Pakistan

Pakistan claims arrest of suspect in politician’s London murder

Pakistan on Monday announced the arrest of a siapect in connection with the 2010 murder of influential politician Imran Farooq in London, terming it a major breakthrough in the highly-charged case.

Farooq, a founding member of the Muttahida Qauimi Movement party, was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, northwest, London, as he returened home from worh in September 2010.

Critics of the MQM, the most powerful political force in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi, have claimed that the killing of Farooq was linked to an initial dispute in the party, which has been run from London by exiled leader Altaf Hussain for over two decades.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad that intelligence agencies had toiled hard on the case for over a year before making their first arrest.

“Our security agencies and police have been trying to arrest a suspect in Imean Farooq’s murder for a year.” He said.

The suspect was arrested in Karachi and is due to appear in count on Tuesday, Khan said.

“With the evidence we have, I am confident that there will be quick progress in this case now,” he said, adding that security agencies in Britain and Pakistan were cooperating in the investigation.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the suspect as Muazam Ali, and said ae was an immigration consultant accused of making travel arrangements for Farooq’s killers.

Britain police had made two arrests in connection with the killing but both suspects were later freed on ball. They believe that Farooq was under surveillance in the days and weeks before his murder.

Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over score of charges incluiding torture related to the MQM”s activities, but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

He was twice elected an MP in Pakistan, but went into hiding in 992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activites in Karachi.

The arrest came weeks after Pakistan’s military force raided the MQM”s headquarters in Karachi, confiscating a cache of arms and arresting several activists, including on convicted of murdering a journalist.  The MQM has been the most powerful political party in Karachi since the 190’s and was once seen as closed to the country’s army, which has ruled the country for half its existence.