Pak court sentences 5 MQM activists to 25 yrs' jail

Five activists of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were today sentenced to 25 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court here for assaulting policemen and attempt to murder.
This is the first major sentencing handed down on MQM workers and activists since the law enforcement agencies started an operation clean up here in late 2013.
Judge Anand Ram D Sairani of Anti-Terrorsim Court (ATC) IV gave the convicts - who were arrested for damaging public property, assaulting policemen and attempting to murder - 25 years each in the cases.
The MQM is the fourth big party in national politics with seats in the national assembly and Sindh assembly.

For the past two and half decades, the MQM has dominated Karachi's political landscape but since the operation clean up started, the paramilitary rangers not only raided the party's headquarters in Azizabad but also claimed to have caught absconding prisoners and huge cache of arms from the MQM headquarters.
However, the party maintains it is being politically victimised.