KARACHI: Hours after Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif`s directive to the Rangers for the arrest of those involved in Monday`s violence in the city, the law enforcement agencies launched a crackdown on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement across the province by taking into custody several party workers and leaders, booking them with Altaf Hussain in treason cases andsealingoffthe party ofñces,0fhcials said.

The party offices, including `unit and sector` offices, in Karachi and other cities were sealed under the supervision of legal ofñcers before the law enforcement agencies finally reached the MQM headquarters, called Nine Zero, for a four-hour-long search operation. After the operation, the Rangers claimed to have recovered arms, anti-state material and other items which were being examined for further investigation.

`We have done all this action under defined laws,` Brigadier Khurram Shahzas of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, told reporters after the operation. `We have recovere d arms including several assault rifles and pistols, besides some anti-statematerial.Wehavecompleted our operation and now the Nine Zero, Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall and MPA Hostel.... Women were here when we came here. They were detained and all of them were released af ter a while,` he added.

The offices in other Sindh cities, including Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar, met with the same fate where the area police led the operation against the party.