Dr Imran Farooq: Murder, trial and justice

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq was brutally stabbed to death outside his home in London on September 16, 2010. Almost 10 years ago later, a court in Pakistan has sentenced three suspects to life imprisonment for the murder.

Anti-Terrorism Court in Islamabad sentenced three accused in the murder case – Moazzam Ali, Mohsin Ali and Khalid Shamim – to life imprisonment and a fine of a million rupees.

This ends a lengthy trial involving investigations and arrests in both Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Founders others including MQM founder Altaf Hussai, Iftikhar Hussain, Muhammad Anwar and Kashif Kamran are proclaimed offenders.

Who was Dr Imran Farooq?

Dr Imran Farooq was an exiled leader of the MQM who was living in London. He is considered one of the founders of the AMPSO – the student wing of the MQM – along with Altaf Hussain.

Imran Farooq was born in Karachi to parents who had migrated from India after independence. He graduated from Sindh Medical College in Karachi with an MBBS degree in 1985.

In 1978, Farooq helped established the All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization. This led to the birth of the Muhajir Quami Movement (MQM) and Farooq served as its first Secretary General and convener. He was elected to the National Assembly form 1988-90.

By 1992, the MQM had become a political force in Karachi and the military launched an operation to crackdown on the movement leading to arrests and killing of many party activists. Others including Altaf Hussain and Imran Farooq went into hiding and eventually sought asylum in UK.

After being in hiding for nearly seven years, Farooq escaped from Pakistan in 1999, sought political asylum in the UK and later gained British citizenship. He married Shumaila, a former Sindh Assembly member in 2004 and had two sons.

Farooq maintained close relations with Altaf Hussain but developed differences, leading to speculation that Altaf Hussain was behind the assassination.

Death and investigation

Farooq was found murdered near his home in North London on 16 September 2010 after he was returning from visiting a local pharmacy.

The Metropolitan Police said they were called on the complaint of a ‘serious assault’ in Green Lane, Edgware, where they found Farooq, who had suffered multiple stab wounds and head injuries.

An autopsy determined the cause of death as being head trauma and stab wounds to the neck. The suspects had fled the scene leaving behind a 14 cm knife and a house brick used to commit the crime.

Law-enforcement authorities in UK started investigating the murder. Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command detectives believed that Farooq was building his independent political profile in the months before he was killed.

In June 2013, British police arrested Iftikhar Hussain, a primary suspect in the murder case and a close relative of Altaf Hussain and received previously unknown facts and connections.

Major suspect of the murder case, Khalid Shamim, confessed on 10 November 2016 that all the planning of murder took place on MQM headquarters Nine Zero in Karachi.

Trial and sentence

No headway was made in the trial of Dr Imran Farooq as the suspects were not in UK. Two of them have fled from London right after the murder and reportedly reached Karachi via a flight from Colombo.

Pakistan never confirmed or denied their presence in the country but the arrests were made public in 2015. Kashif Kamran and Mohsin Ali went to London on student visas, while Khalid Shamim and Moazzam were based in Karachi and allegedly tasked with receiving them.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered a case against Altaf Hussain for ordering the murder while nominating three other accused – Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali and Moazzam Ali. Four arrested are still absconders including the main suspect Kashif Kamran is believed to be dead.

Last year, a renowned lawyer in the UK prosecuting the murder case, Toby Cadman, said Britain handed “compelling evidence” to Islamabad. In February, a team of Scotland Yard officers arrived in Islamabad for a week to facilitate the trial after both countries decided to cooperate and the UK sent the entire murder case file to Pakistan

The verdict for the case was reserved on May 21. The suspects did not defend themselves while counsel pleaded the case during the lengthy trial which also has testimony from Farooq’s widow.

As is the norm with our judicial system, the trial was concluded five years after it was filed and a decade since the gruesome murder.