ISLAMABAD: Although party’s spokesman Wasay Jalil denies that convicted killers of Geo News reporter Wali Khan Babar belong to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the joint interrogation report by country’s six top intelligence agencies has established that at least three of the six convicts were from MQM.
It is also a strange coincidence that Salman Mujhahid, the lawyer who represented the convicts, is also a sitting National Assembly member of MQM.
An anti-terrorism court in Kandhkot Saturday sentenced proclaimed offenders Kamran alias Zeeshan and Faisal Mota to death in Wali Khan Babar case while Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati (MQM), Naveed alias Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi (MQM) and Shah Rukh alias Mani (MQM) were granted imprisonment for life.
The confidential interrogation reports of six premier intelligence agencies of the country including ISI, IB, CID, Pakistan Rangers and police have confirmed that Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Shah Rukh alias Mani and Muhammad Ali Rizvi were target killers of MQM.
However when contacted by The News, MQM Spokesman Wasay Jalil said the party has nothing to do with any of the convicted killers. “Every Urdu-speaking person is not an MQM worker. These kinds of allegations are not new to the party as some people continue to spread fabricated stories against the party,” he said adding that these questioned should arise only if the court convicts MQM.
To a question, Wasay said he does not know that martyred Wali Khan wanted to interview Faiza Gabol the ex-wife of MQM Chief Altaf Hussain.
“Even if he wanted to interview Faiza Gabol there was nothing wrong in it,” he said adding that MQM had very good relations with late Wali Khan. “He had a brief journalism-career spanning over two years. He used to sit in party camps and even on the day of death he spent two-hours in MQM camp,” the spokesman said.
To another question about the fact that a sitting MNA of MQM was representing the convicts, Wasay Jalil said as lawyer he has the right to take up any case while the accused also had the right to chose any good lawyer. “I know Salman Mujahid is a very good lawyer so the accused decided to hire him for this case,” he said adding that Salman had recently become MNA of the party while he is lawyer for years.
However the reports of Joint interrogation teams’ (JITs), copies of which are available with The News, are pointing towards the MQM worker’s involvement in the case.
The JITs were constituted by the Sindh government and they comprised highly competent officers from Pakistan’s top agencies. They interrogated Faisal Mehmood, Shah Rukh and Muhammad Ali Rizvi separately after their arrests and compiled comprehensive reports on each of the accused.
The report on Faisal confirmed that he joined MQM in 2003 as worker on the instigation of the member sector committee Orangi town Ashraf alias Imam.
During the investigation he told Police how the plan to kill the brave Geo journalist was executed with the help of other accused.
Similarly the JITs on Shah Rukh and Ali Rizvi also confirmed that they were workers of MQM. According to security sources, the mastermind of the murder also received telephonic instructions from South Africa while the agencies also came to know that convicts had nexus with an intelligence agency of a neighbouring country.
The police officers, Rangers and ISI officials worked bravely and tirelessly on the case to finally bring the culprits to the book. In this connection the Inspector Shafiq Tanoli, the then SSP Naveed Khawaja and current DIG Sultan Khawaja played a vital role.