MQM founder seeks asylum, financial help from India

LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain has requested Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for help by giving asylum and financial help to him and his companions.

In his first ever public speech after the police relaxed his bail conditions, the MQM leader has turned towards the Indian prime minister and asked him for help in many forms. The MQM leader has been charged with a section of terrorism by the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) and is due to stand trial in June next year. His passport remains with the UK police as part of his bail conditions and he is not allowed to apply for any travel document unless permitted by the court. Lawyers are assessing whether Hussain has breached his bail conditions by asking the Indian premier to let him stay in India while he awaits trial of his case.

In a speech watched online by thousands of people, the MQM leader said he would like to travel to India because his grandfathers are buried there. The MQM founder said in his request to the Indian government: "If India's Prime Minister Mr. Modi allows me to come to India and provides me asylum with my colleagues, I am ready to come to India along with my colleagues because my grandfather is buried there. My grandmother is buried there and thousands of my relatives are buried there in India. I want to go to India to their graves."

Addressing Modi, Altaf Hussain alleged that his assets, house and offices were taken over in Karachi after August 22, 2017. He asked the Indian prime minister to help him with money if he cannot take the risk of providing him asylum.

Altaf Hussain was speaking soon after India's superior court announced its verdict in the Babri Mosque case, maintaining that Muslims do not have a right over the disputed historic site. Hussain said the current government of Modi has the "right to establish Hindu raaj (rule)" and if Indian politician Asaduddin Owaisi and others did not like India, they should migrate to Pakistan. In his speech, Altaf Hussain sided with the Indian government's position on the Babri Mosque issue.

The MQM leader has been charged in the UK for inciting violence in Pakistan in one of his speeches back in August 2016 to a crowd of his supporters in Karachi. Most of his senior comrades have left him over incendiary speeches and remarks which caused huge damage to the once most formidable force of Karachi.