Scotland Yard to probe another controversial speech by Altaf Hussain

KARACHI/LONDON: London's Metropolitan police on Monday decided to launch an investigation into another controversial speech by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, almost a year after he was cleared of ‘incitement of hate speech’.

Sources told Geo News that Scotland Yard will examine the controversial speech, made on March 11 this year, for any evidence of hate speech or incitement to violence.

The MQM chief's statement had come immediately after Rangers personnel raided the party's Nine-Zaro headqaurters in Karachi, arresting several workers and claiming to have recovered illegal Nato weapons and military gear from the party's office.

The party had denied that it possessed any illegal weapons and said that all arms seized from its offices were properly licensed.

The news from London comes with the MQM facing criticism over another controversial speech made by the party's chief on Sunday, in which he is said to have directly criticised DG Rangers Lt-Gen Bilal Akbar and the military establishment, and also called on Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif to remove "a handful of personnel in Army defaming the institution".

The MQM chief's Sunday speech by was severely criticised earlier today by Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who termed Hussain’s remarks unacceptable and condemnable, and said the MQM chief had reached the limits of provocation.

The provocative and controversial nature of the speech can be gauged from the fact that several leading news organisations refrained from carrying it in the following day's editions of their newspapers.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Rangers called an emergency meeting in Karachi Monday night in which sources said officials were also discussing the recent statements from the MQM chief.