MQM has decided to be a party in the SC suo motu case on Karachi unrest.

The MQM announced this after simultaneous Rabita Committee meetings in Karachi and London.

Rabita Committee member Mustafa Kamal addressed a news conference and took a swipe at Zulfiqar Mirza for his outburst against MQM chief Altaf Hussain. He said the state elements supporting Mirza and propagating his malicious campaign against the MQM chief be held accountable.

He said Mirza’s allegations were part of a larger conspiracy against the Mohajir community. He also enumerated the sacrifices rendered by the Mohajirs in order to stress that the allegations leveled against the MQM as a Mahajir party were baseless. “Our community sacrificed lives for the creation of Pakistan. It is lamentable that the same community is being made a target of a witch-hunt.”

Referring to the alleged letter that Mirza said was written by Altaf Hussain to Tony Blair to seek MI6’s involvement to dismantle ISI, Kamal said the history is replete with such malicious sagas, as “the letter is fabricated. It doesn’t have the right address on the letterhead.”

Kamal said the purported letter reads that MQM would provide support against militants and the Taliban in interior Sindh. He said this proves that the letter is fabricated as the letter is dated 2001 when the MQM had no or minimal penetration in interior Sindh.

About a point of the letter that MQM will send its members to support coalition forces in Afghanistan, Kamal said the organization of the MQM has been delayed in Peshawar as the party faces many a constraints. How come the party then send its members to Afghanistan, he questioned.

Kamal said the silence of the MQM be not taken as a weakness as the party delayed its response to Mirza’s allegations only to avert unrest in the city. He said as far the purported letter is concerned, the ISI itself has denied presence of any such letter. He said the drama has been staged for the character assassination of Altaf Hussain.

For the point that Altaf Hussain allegedly asked Blair to help dismantle ISI, Kamal said the operation against the MQM was initiated in 1999 and it continued into 2001 when Pervez Musharraf was in power. He said the role of the agencies in that context is known and was duly objected to by the MQM. However, he said, Mirza by colouring the point in a wrong way wanted to create bad feelings in the Army against the MQM. He said Altaf Hussain always took stance keeping in view solidarity of Pakistan.

He lamented that Mirza went ahead to accuse MQM leader Babar Khan Ghauri of abetting in theft of thousands of NATO containers from Karachi Port Trust. He said he would retain decency and choose decent words to deny the allegations, else he desired to pay back in the same tone. He said it is surprising that not a single FIR was launched for theft of not one, not two, but thousands of containers. He asked how come NATO kept silent on it, as if there is connivance between the MQM and NATO. "If such is the case that NATO and MQM have such cordial relations, everyone should be careful," Kamal said in a sarcastic tone, adding that the efforts to push the MQM to the wall would fail.

The MQM leader also took a swipe at the media for giving coverage to Mirza s allegations against the MQM chief and the Mohajir community. Kamal said isn t it undemocratic that a political party s leader is subjected to such media trial based on mere allegations.

Kamal also enumerated a number of instances of slur against the Mohajir community. He cited the unrest in Katti Pahari area of Karachi where, he recalled, women and children had been "living under constant fear with no interference from the Rangers, who can only step in on orders from the state".

Kamal also came down on Lashkari Raisani, saying why Lashkari didn t dilate on the elements behind unrest in Katti Pahari or the unrest in Balochistan. He enumerated targetted hits against the Mohajirs in Lyari. He also mentioned of the incident of bus torching in which children were burnt alive. He said the Urdu-speaking people were mercilessly killed, but no human rights organisation or any political leader paid any heed to it, let alone raising voice against this cruelty. He asked why Asma Jehangir, Chairperson Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and President SCBA, doesn t highlight such massacre of the Mohajirs.

He said the government claims many innocent members of the community were freed from torture cells after intervention from the security forces. He invited the attention of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to the release of 18 innocent people as claimed by the government. He asked who was this silent operation launched against. "Who were the captors," Kamal asked, demanding their names be exposed now.

Kamal said if anyone has any proof against the MQM chief or workers, these be presented in courts. He said all segments of society, including the media, political leaders, rights organisations were indulging in character assasination of the MQM leadership. He demanded a judicial inquiry into the issuance of a number of arms licenses by Zulfiqar Mirza as home minister. He said Mirza wanted to cut off the jagular vein of Pakistan (Karachi) by creating an arms squad, by issuing such large number of licenses. He said anchor persons were acting as judges and rubbishing the tusted principle of considering anyone "innocent until proven guilty".

Amateur photographer Luc Perrot was stunned when he saw the apparition 2,000ft up on top of the volcanic Cirque of Mafate peak, with arms outstretched, floats on a cloud, with a crescent of light acting as a halo.

The Frenchman had climbed the mountain to record a time-lapse video of the movement of the clouds on July 10 this year.

"I was making a time-lapse video with the movement of clouds above the Cirque of Mafate when I began scanning the horizon for a good shot," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

"As I looked up I noticed a shadow floating on clouds surrounded by a rainbow.

"It took me by complete surprise. When I looked back at the footage, it gave me the feeling of divine apparition.

"When I saw the footage I realised the figure was surmounted by a white arc, which reminded me very much of a halo.

''You read about this phenomenon in books but I have never seen it before myself."'

Rather than attribute the phenomenon to a spiritual experience, Mr Perrot - a physiotherapist -is clear that the bizarre sighting was caused by the weather.

"It can probably be explained scientifically. There are lots of different climatic phenomena like the Brocken spectre and fogbows, but it does look amazing and is unique," he added.