KARACHI, Aug 22: MQM chief Altaf Hussain has warned against what he called a conspiracy to dismember the country and appealed to the nation to boycott all the elements involved in the target killing of members of Shia community.

Talking to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Interior Minister Rehman Malik by phone on Wednesday, Mr Hussain said that elements involved in the killing of Shias after pulling them off buses and identifying them through their identity cards were in fact serving the country’s enemies who were conspiring to divide the country on ethnic, linguistic or sectarian grounds.

It was a fact that the founder of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, belonged to Khoja Shia Asnae Ashary school of thought and when he died two separate funeral prayers had been offered, one led by Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani and the other by Shia Maulana Aneesul Hassan Rizvi, the MQM chief said.

Recalling that the country was facing threats from all sides and that the situation demanded complete unity among Pakistanis, Mr Hussain said that elements involved in the killing of Shias, or even those who wanted the Hindus, Sikhs and Christians to leave the country, were doing great injustice to the country and were undermining the teachings of Mr Jinnah.