KARACHI: Former Muttahida Qaumi Movement convener and head of US-based advocacy group Voice of Karachi Nadeem Nusrat has survived an “assassination attempt” in Houston, his party said.
A statement received here stated that Mr Nusrat hosted an event in Houston on Sunday afternoon and left with VOK leader Shahid Farhad in a car.
It said that while travelling on Highway 59 South, Mr Farhad spotted a black SUV suspiciously trying to get closer to his vehicle and then he noticed “a hand coming out of the backseat window of the suspicious vehicle with a handgun”.
He instinctively pulled the brake resulting in misfire from the assailants. Multiple shots were fired. Mr Nusrat also witnessed empty bullet shells flying in the air and hitting the front portion of his vehicle, the statement said, adding that the attackers escaped on the highway.
“Mr Nusrat and Mr Farhad have lodged the official report at the local police station and informed pertinent authorities, who have started an investigation into the incident,” it said. Mr Nusrat was then the London-based convener of the unified MQM when party founder Altaf Hussain made an incendiary speech on Aug 22, 2016. Later, the party in Pakistan sacked him replacing him with Dr Farooq Sattar as the convener of the coordination committee of the MQM-Pakistan.
He then led the London faction of the MQM as its convener and later parted ways with Mr Hussain and moved back to the US, where he first launched a ‘Free Karachi’ campaign and then turned it into the Voice of Karachi advocacy group.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s convener in London and Altaf Hussain’s long-time ally, Nadeem Nusrat has parted ways with Hussain, TTI had reported earlier.
A rift over financial matters forced Nusrat to take the decision. He has since moved to the United States with his family, the sources claimed. His move adds to Hussain’s worries, who has already been deserted by prominent London Rabita Committee members Wasay Jalil, Inbisat Malik and Zulfiqar Haider.
The MQM founder has been in trouble since his diatribe against the armed forces in August last year, following which his party members had distanced themselves from him and gathered under the leadership of Farooq Sattar to form a separate faction.
