KARACHI: In an unusual move, an army general spoke to Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment chief Altaf Hussain over phone on Friday, listened to his grievances about the Karachi operation and promised to him to form a committee to investigate every complaint against the operation.

It all started after a statement of the MQM chief was released in the evening and flashed as breaking news by every news channel in which Mr Hussain said he was writing an open letter to Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif about “extrajudicial killings of Urdu-speaking innocent workers of the MQM by Rangers, their arrests and torture” during the Karachi operation.

He said that his comrades had approached every military channel but in vain. He requested editors of national dailies to give his letter to the army chief maximum coverage as he had no option except to write an open letter.

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An MQM source told Dawn that neither the federal government nor the provincial government did anything to allay MQM’s serious reservations about the operation in which, he said, dozens of MQM workers and sympathisers had become victim of extrajudicial killings.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday, but he did not ask as to why a monitoring committee was not formed, the source said.

“That is why Altaf Bhai is writing an open letter to the army chief directly about the situation on the ground, but for now he decided not to write the letter after the Karachi corps commander assured him about formation of a committee and that action would be taken against any officer of the paramilitary Rangers found involved in any illegal act.”

According to an MQM press release, Karachi Corps Commander Lt-Gen Sajjad Ghani and Mr Hussain discussed at length about the MQM’s complaints regarding the Karachi operation.

The corps commander assured Mr Hussain that steps would be taken to make the operation impartial and all complaints would be thoroughly investigated.

“During the conversation it was also decided to form a six-member committee comprising three MQM members and three representatives of the law-enforcement agencies,” said the statement.

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“The committee will look into every complaint and action will be taken against those found involved in breaking the law, irrespective of their affiliation.”

The MQM statement concluded that the Karachi corps commander listened to Mr Hussain’s complaint as an “impartial, honest and committed” officer. After this, Mr Hussain decided not to write an open letter to the army chief.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014