An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi indicted several MQM leaders in 21 cases on Tuesday on charges of facilitating the dissemination of hateful speeches made by party founder Altaf Hussain, arson attacks and the ransacking of some media houses.

The leaders all pleaded 'not guilty'. All were extended interim bail in the cases they have been indicted in.

Senior MQM leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, Amir Khan, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Rauf Siddiqui, Rashid Godil, Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Gul Faraz Khattak, Salman Mujahid, Abdul Qadir Khanzada, Khushbakht Shujaat, Shahid Pasha, Qamar Mansoor and Kanwar Naveed, along with nearly 200 party workers, have been booked in the identical cases.

On their counsels' request, the ATC-I judge had previously clubbed over 20 identical FIRs against the MQM leaders accusing them of facilitating and listening to a provocative speech against the country’s security establishment delivered by Altaf Hussain.

The court had in a past hearing fixed the indictment in those cases for today (Oct 23). The court will indict the suspects in five other cases on Nov 10.