KARACHI: A close aide of senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar, on a three-month preventive detention has died under custody of law enforcers, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said on Tuesday.
“MQM activist Aftab Ahmed died under custody around 4:00 AM this morning,” MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan told reporters in Karachi today.
“We demand that a medical board be constituted to thoroughly investigate the death of the MQM worker,” said the MQM leader.
A medico-legal officer at the Jinnah hospital in Karachi confirmed the MQM worker’s death. He said that a magistrate would oversee the post-mortem of the MQM worker’s body.
“Aftab Ahmed was brought to the Jinnah Hospital at 7:25 AM this morning where he was treated in the emergency ward. Aftab Ahmed passed away during emergency treatment,” said Dr Seemi Jamali, head of emergency at the Jinnah Postgraduate medical centre (JPMC).
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed on the man, who had no pulse and no blood pressure when he was brought to the hospital, she said.
He died at around 7:45am after doctors failed to revive him, she said.
Aftab Ahmed was reportedly detained by law enforcement personnel in plainclothes during a raid near Mukka Chowk in Federal B Area on Sunday evening.
He was among seven suspects presented before a judge of the anti-terrorism court on Monday by the paramilitary Rangers force.
A Rangers lawyer informed the court that the suspects belonging MQM were involved in the target-killing of over 40 people. The court had granted the Rangers’ request for a 90-day preventive detention under Section 11-EEEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
Additional police surgeon Dr Kaleem Shaikh said the exact cause of his death would be ascertained after post-mortem.
Because the MQM worker died a custodial death, he said, the post-mortem will be conducted in the presence of a magistrate, who is currently awaited.
INP