KARACHI, Sept 4: The special investigation unit of police disclosed on Sunday the arrest of an alleged member of a gang of criminals running a ‘protection’ racket in a raid in Lines Area.

The suspect, identified as Shahroz, confessed to have killed four people by slitting their throats with the assistance of his accomplices, the police added.

Acting on the information obtained from the suspect, the police recovered a body from a closed house in a New Karachi area in Sector 5-B.

The victim was identified as Dildar alias Iftikhar Bhatti and his throat had been slit, the police added.

SSP Raja Umar Khattab told Dawn that Dildar was a police informer and two days back the suspects had asked him to reach Saba cinema in New Karachi, where he was kidnapped.

The SSP said the suspect’s gang was composed of around five men —ring-leader Umair and members, Shahroz, Mansoor, Khan and Asif.They took victim Dildar to a rented house in New Karachi where his throat was slit by Umair.

They kept the body inside a box in order to dispose it of some time during the night, the SSP added.

Over the past two months the suspects had killed four people, including Dildar, Abid, Kamran and Saeed, in  the city, the SSP claimed.

He added that the suspects were not affiliated with any political party and were dacoits who ran an extortion racket.

Meanwhile, police arrested a suspected member of a protection racket, Majid alias Kalu, in Pak Colony and seized a weapon from him.

SSP (west) Asif Ajaz said the suspect had killed a factory owner over non-payment of extortion. The pistol seized from the suspect’s possession had been sent for a forensic examination, the SSP added.