KARACHI: Police on Sunday found the body of Dr. Hasan Zafar Arif, a central leader of the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London, here in Ilyas Goth neighborhood near Ibrahim Haidri, in Karachi.
Prominent leftist intellectual and former academic Arif, 75, was serving as the MQM-London’s deputy convener.
Police said his body was found in his car in Ilyas Goth on the outskirts of the city. Local police officer Nazeer Chandio told Arab News that the body was identified with the help of an identity card found in the pocket. “It is premature to comment about the causes of the murder. It will be clear after the post-mortem,” he said.
Doctors at state-run Jinnah Hospital said that Arif’s body has been sent for medico-legal post-mortem. “He was dead before his body was brought to the hospital,,” said Dr. Seemi Jamali, head of the hospital’s emergency section. She said that they did not find marks of torture or bullets on his body.
Abdul Majeed Karwani, a local leader of MQM-London and close friend of Arif, said that Arif left his office in Saddar for his residence at DHA on Saturday at 6 p.m. and drove the car himself.
“We were scheduled to visit a party worker for condolence but Dr. Sahab apologized as he wanted to see his daughter who had come from London,” said Karwani, adding his friend never reached his home. In the morning his wife called and said he hadn’t reached home. “As we were trying to locate, we saw the TV tickers that the dead body of Arif had been found.”
“The party’s central leadership in London and family in Karachi will decide whether to lodge FIR or not,” Karwani told Arab News.
Arif was a former teacher at the University of Karachi’s department of philosophy and studied at Reading and Harvard universities. He was a known leftist intellectual and rights activist who played a key role in the movement against former president Ziaul Haq in the 1980s and was imprisoned.
In the past, he was also associated with the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Arif was detained for a few days after being arrested from near Karachi Press Club where he was to attend a press conference for the MQM-London, which has been suffering from ongoing crackdown led by paramilitary operation since September 2013.
In a statement, MQM-London said that the professor was missing since yesterday and alleged that he had been killed.
“The death of Prof. Hassan Zafar Arif under mysterious circumstances is very sad and bad news, said Faisal Sabzwari, a member of the provincial assembly of Sindh and a leader of the MQM-Pakistan, demanding that a proper inquiry be held into the murder and justice ensured.
He will be buried in Sakhi Hasan graveyard later today.
MQM-London leader is found dead in mysterious circumstances
MQM-London leader is found dead in mysterious circumstances
Macron vows stronger cooperation with Nigeria after mass kidnappings
- Macron wrote on X that France “will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations”
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that France will step up cooperation with Nigeria after speaking with his counterpart, as the West African country faces a surge in abductions.
Nigeria has been wracked by a wave of kidnappings in recent weeks, including the capture of over 300 school children two weeks ago that shook Africa’s most populous country, already weary from chronic violence.
Macron wrote on X that the move came at Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s request, saying France “will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations,” while urging other countries to “step up their engagement.”
“No one can remain a spectator” to what is happening in Nigeria, the French president said.
Nigeria has drawn heightened attention from Washington in recent weeks, after US President Donald Trump said in November that the United States was prepared to take military action there to counter the killing of Christians.
US officials, while not contradicting Trump, have since instead emphasized other US actions on Nigeria including security cooperation with the government and the prospect of targeted sanctions.
Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups have plagued Nigeria since the 2014 abduction of 276 school girls in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram militants.
The religiously diverse country is the scene of a number of long-brewing conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately.
Many scholars say the reality is more nuanced, with conflicts rooted in struggles for scarce resources rather than directly related to religion.
