The Aligarh Colony massacre instigated the bloody riots of November–December 1986. Later, following an unsuccessful raid on an Afghan heroine processing and distribution centre in Sohrab Goth by the army, Pathan and Afghan terrorist turned their ire on muhajir residents of Aligarh Colony.
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In May 1985, a Pathan minivan driver struck and killed a muhajir schoolgirl inciting the first Pathan-Muhajir ethnic riot. The urban centres of Karachi and Hyderabad had increasingly become ethnically diverse and riots along ethnic lines were commonplace. Hussain was later released on 28 April 1980 after he had served his sentence. Following the demonstration, Hussain was arrested and sentenced on 2 October 1979 for 9 months imprisonment and flogging with five strokes.
The political strife of the All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organization (APMSO) bifurcated into the issue of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh and on 14 August 1979, Hussain participated in a demonstration at the Mazar-e-Quaid for the safe return of stranded Pakistanis, also called the Biharis. This is quoted as one of the many instances that formulated Hussain's future political aspirations. In the version of events told by the MQM, the selection officer rejected Hussain's selection because his parents were 'muhajirs' from India even when Hussain insisted he was born in Pakistan. Political careerĪfter 1971 Indo-Pak war came to an end, Hussain returned to West Pakistan to join wilfully with the regular army. Upon completion of his training, his regiment was assigned from Hyderabad to Karachi from where it was sent to East Pakistan via ships. According to the MQM, Altaf Hussain enlisted with the Pakistan Army through the NSCS and his services were assigned to the 57th Baloch Regiment as soldier number 2642671. In 1970, General Yahya Khan introduced the National Service Cadet Scheme (NSCS) making it compulsory for higher secondary scholars to enlist with the army. After graduating from the university, Hussain began his career as a trainee at the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Karachi while simultaneously working for a multinational pharmaceutical company. In 1979, he graduated from the University of Karachi with a Bachelor of Pharmacy. In 1974, Hussain graduated from the Islamia Science College with a Bachelor of Science. He later moved to City College Karachi for his second year. For the first year of his intermediate education in pre-medical sciences, he attended the National College Karachi. He later enrolled in the Government Boys Secondary School to complete his matriculation in 1969. Hussain received his early education from the Government Comprehensive School in Azizabad. The family later moved residence again in the 1970s to a small house in Azizabad which later became the headquarters of Hussain's political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM formerly Muhajir Qaumi Movement). The family subsequently left their government allotted residence and moved in with Nasir. Hussain's elder brother Nasir Hussain was later employed by the government and given a small quarter on Jehangir Road. They were provided with government housing in Abyssinia Lines reserved for muhajirs (people and families migrating from the Dominion of India). Upon emigrating to Pakistan, the family settled in Karachi. Hussain's parents were initially reluctant to leave everything behind in Agra to resettle in Pakistan but were later forced by Hussain's elder brother to reconsider. Hussain's siblings include four sisters and six brothers.įollowing the partition of India in 1947, a wide-scale migration of Muslims ensued where they migrated from the various states in the Dominion of India to the newly established Dominion of Pakistan. His paternal grandfather Mohammad Ramazan was the Grand Mufti of Agra and his maternal grandfather Pir Haji Hafiz Rahim Bakhsh Qadri was a religious scholar. His father was an officer with the Indian Railways. Before the independence of Pakistan, Hussain's parents resided at their ancestral home in Nai ki Mandi, Agra, UP, British India.