Who killed Dr. Imran Farooq?

Upright Opinion
Who killed Dr. Imran Farooq?
By Saeed Qureshi
September 18, 2010

The London Metropolitan police known as the New Scotland Yard would be able, in due course, to unravel the assassins of the founder member, former convener, and deputy convener of MQM, Dr. Imran Farooq who was stabbed to death in Mill Hills locality in London last Thursday.

But presently it is an incident shrouded in mystery. The culprits cannot be captured so soon by any mechanism until the London police gathers enough evidence and connects strings related with the murder. In the meantime, the police has shifted Dr Imran’s wife to an undisclosed place for either safety or for investigation.
Presently, media and other sources are expressing and analyzing various aspects and motives behind Dr. Imran’s assassination, a high profile member of the MQM though presently estranged and rather disgruntled with MQM. One of the fingers being pointed out are towards the high command of MQM that may have been wary of Dr. Imran’s being the repository of many crucial secrets of this party that if spilled could land this organization in deep trouble.
It is a well know fact that Dr Imran was not having quite cordial or even normal relations with the top leadership of the MQM for quite some time. This strained and sour nature of relationship can be gauged from his expulsion from the MQM two times and suspension four times. He was under suspension and cut off from the party and its leadership for over two years until his death.
While living in exile that he chose with Altaf Hussain simultaneously, he kept a distance from his overbearing boss in the last several years and according to reports, they hardly spoke with each other except on very few occasions. He was an asylee like Altaf Hussain and was leading a low profile and modest life in London.
There is no gainsaying that there is certainly a sinister plot and well laid out conspiracy behind the murder of Dr. Imran whose role during the pioneering stages of MQM (previously Mohajar Qaumi Movement) was that of an ideologue, a planner, and an architect. But the leading cause for his estrangement or disenchantment with the party was its paradigm of functioning as a closely-knit mafia organization that tolerated no dissention or even criticism on the party boss.
It is also being rumored that perhaps after being in political limbo for such a long time, Dr Imran was in the process of launching his own political party although he was still a member of the party though under suspension.
The conditions, under which Dr Imran who came to London in 1992 was killed, are murky and appear to be intriguing. If he was safe and lived normal life for about 18 years how come that all of a sudden, he was put to death at a stage when he was like a spent force as far his political career was concerned.
If it is true that before his death he had participated in a special meeting convened in connection with the celebration of MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s 57th birthday, then there seems to be more than meets the eye. Although a grief, stricken and sobbing Altaf Hussain looked to be totally devastated by the tragic death of a very close former colleague, yet if the occurrence of the meeting is established then the case will take a new turn.
There is also another possibility that gang war that has been simmering between the rival Mohajar factions, (MQM Haq Prast led by Altaf Hussain and MQM Haqiqi led by Afaq Khan), all these years has spilled over to England. Dr. Imran’s murder might have been also committed by perpetrators and elements that might be hoping that it would somehow implicate the MQM, especially this party’s chief so that their revolutionary mission of rooting out feudalism and reaching out to the rest of Pakistan is nipped before it comes to a full bloom.
Dr. Imran was from Bihar and therefore was known as a Bihari Mohajar with sizeable backing within MQM. It has not yet been established if he had been meeting with MQM’s (Haq Prast) rival group Haqiqi headed by Amir Khan and Afaq Ahmed now in jail for quite some time. That one clue if proven would give a new dimension to the death mystery of Dr. Imran Farooq.
Since it is too early to preempt or predict anything even for the best of future tellers, let us wait which way the investigation of Scotland Yard goes and how the layers of this very cold-blooded murder of a high profile political figure are peeled off. But keeping in view the past outstanding performance of British police there is every possibility that finally the real assassins and their backers would be unearthed.
(The writer is a Dallas-based freelance journalist writing mostly on International Affairs with specific focus on Pakistan and the United States)

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