Pakistani senior official murdered in London home

The 50-year old exiled senior member of the MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement) party was murdered outside his home in Green Lane, Edgware, and died after suffering multiple stab wounds and head injuries.

The party has declared ten days of mourning, while violence in Karachi, the main base of support for the MQM, erupted as cars were burned and guns fired across the country.

London police were called to the site at 5.30pm, after reports of a serious attack. Farooq was treated by paramedics but declared dead at the scene an hour later.

Member of the MQM central coordination committee Raza Haroon said "He was a gentleman, a very, very soft spoken person with a lot of knowledge, and who was very outspoken as well.”

"It's a very huge loss to the party to have lost a senior leader, in such a manner.” He added.

Farooq disappeared from Pakistan in 1992, and is know to have been in exile in the UK since 1999, after claiming asylum.

Farooq was in essence the party's deputy leader and had not returned to Pakistan since his arrival in England in the 1990s.