MQM founder Altaf Hussain seeks asylum in India

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant him and his colleagues asylum in India, and financial assistance.

Hussain, who has been living in exile in the UK since 1992, in his request to the Indian government, said: "If India's Prime Minister 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 and thousands of my relatives are buried there. I want to go to India to their graves. I'm a peaceful person. I promise that I will not interfere in any kind of politics but please allow me along with my colleagues to live in India."

While several complaints were registered against Hussain in the UK over his speeches against Pakistan's military establishment and spy agency, ISI, the UK authorities formally charged him last month for inciting violence against Pakistan in one of his speeches in 2016.

On August 22, 2016, Hussain, while addressing the MQM workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against disappearances and extrajudicial killings of his party workers, had not only raised anti-Pakistan slogans but also called the country "cancer for the entire world".

"Pakistan is cancer for the entire world. Pakistan is a headache for the entire world. Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism for the entire world. Who says long live Pakistan... it's down with Pakistan!" Hussain had said.

MQM has dominated politics in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi for three decades. Earlier known as the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Hussain's party started off as a political group, aiming to represent the Urdu-speaking community and descendants who migrated from India when Pakistan was created in 1947. After 1988 polls, the MQM emerged as the third-largest party in Pakistan.

In the early 1990s, the then government launched an operation in Karachi against Hussain's party, accusing him and MQM of violent tactics for political gains. Hussain went into exile in the UK in 1992 after an arrest warrant was issued against him in a murder case and later obtained citizenship of the UK.

Despite a split in the MQM, he still wields considerable influence in the party and its main power base, Karachi.