Imran Khan blames rival and UK for colleague death

The body of Zahra Shahid Hussain is taken to a Karachi hospital. Picture: AP Photo

Tension has simmered in Karachi for days as Mr Khan’s supporters accused members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of rigging in last weekend’s general election.

Hours before voting was due to begin in a partial re-run in the city on Saturday, Zahra Shahid Hussain was shot dead by gunmen as she left her home.

Mr Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) made a string of gains in the election, said he blamed Altaf Hussain, the leader of the MQM, who has lived in London since 1992.

“I hold Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he had openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts,” he said on Twitter, describing the killing as “a targeted act of terror”.

He added that the British Government was also responsible for failing to heed his warnings about Mr Hussain, who was granted political asylum after fleeing Pakistan amid a wave of political violence.

Mr Khan, pictured below, is currently recovering in hospital after fracturing his spine in a fall during the final days of campaigning.

Security was tight throughout the city for yesterday’s re-polling in one constituency following allegations of ballot-stuffing, with troops, police and paramilitary rangers backed up by armoured personnel carriers. Mrs Hussain, 59, was killed by three gunmen on a motorcycle outside her home in an upmarket part of Karachi late on Saturday, the latest killing of a bloody election period marked by more than 150 violent deaths.

Some police officers and party officials said the shooting appeared to be a botched robbery, and Mrs Hussain, 59, was killed as she tried to hand over her purse. But others said she was a victim of Karachi’s notoriously violent political turf wars.

A senior police officer said detectives are keeping an open mind.

“We are investigating all leads that we have got but cannot say at the moment whether it was an attempt of street robbery or a target killing,” Nasir Aftab said.

Some 1,000 mourners attended her funeral prayers yesterday evening.

Mr Hussain condemned the attack in a statement and demanded a “judicial inquiry to get to the culprits”.

Whatever the truth, the killing will focus attention on Karachi’s violent underworld and the politician who runs the city from his shabby offices in London’s Edgware High Street.

The city’s festering violence flares periodically. Last year more than 2,200 people died in terrorist attacks, riots or targeted killings.

The MQM maintains an iron grip on the megacity of 20 million people, fighting off rival political parties which have arrived with Pashtun migrants from the north-west of the country and farmers from the surrounding province of Sindh.

It is supported mainly by Urdu-speaking people who arrived in the port city from India at partition in 1947.

At times it resembles more of a cult than a political party. At its centre is Mr Hussain a reclusive figure. Tensions have run high between the PTI and the MQM after Mr Khan’s party accused it of widespread vote-rigging. The MQM denied the charge and announced a boycott of yesterday’s re-run.

In a fiery address last weekend, Mr Hussain appeared to threaten protesters with violence and said that if his party’s mandate was questioned then Karachi should split from Pakistan.

“MQM is blamed for everything. I say, oppose us with respect and decency, and with proof, otherwise I will soon unleash my supporters,” he reportedly said.

He has since said his remarks were taken out of context but not before the Metropolitan Police were flooded with thousands of complaints from Pakistan. Detectives are now investigating.

They are also still investigating the 2010 murder of a senior MQM official outside his home in London. Imran Farooq was stabbed to death and police believe the killing may have been linked to his political ambitions.