A witness on Saturday identified six accused in a case of attack on ARY News office in Karachi after a provocative speech of the London-based chief of the MQM.
During the hearing of a case in an anti-terrorism court, against the MQM leaders and workers pertaining to attack and ransacking of ARY News office in Karachi on August 22, 2016, a prosecution witness identified six accused workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the courtroom.
The witness identified and stated that the accused were involved in ransacking and attack on the office of the media house. “The accused assaulted the media house office in a group and ransacked it,” the witness informed the court.
The anti-terrorism court had indicted Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders Farooq Sattar, Aamir Khan, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Qamar Mansoor and others in the case pertaining to attack on media houses.
The court had also declared MQM founder and scores of other accused as absconders in the case.
The media houses were ransacked as MQM workers went berserk after listening the highly provocative speech of their London-based chief, and resorted to violence, firing and arson on August 22, 2016 evening that left at least one person dead and a dozen others wounded.
ARY News has alleged that the protesters were members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The TV channel further reported that the protesters entered the building and attacked the staff.
According to TV channels, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief in his speech earlier told protesters “to storm the offices of TV channels”.
Senior ARY anchor Kashif Abbasi said, “They are Muttahida people. He (Altaf) ordered them to do it and within 10 minutes all this happened.”
A Samaa DSNG van was also attacked. Additionally, a police van and motorcycle of a traffic police official were reportedly set on fire.
