LONDON: British police on Wednesday arrested a 30-year-old man in connection with the 2010 murder of influential politician Imran Farooq in London.

Mr Farooq, 50, a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, northwest London, as he returned home from work in September 2010.

Scotland Yard police were questioning the suspect at a central London police station after he was arrested at an address in Waltham Forest, east London.

They were also searching a property in the area, according to a statement from police.

Police searching a property in east London

Detectives believe that Mr Farooq was under surveillance in the days and weeks before his murder and have already arrested one man and given the names of two others they want to trace in connection with the killing.

A 52-year-old man was arrested at Heathrow Airport in June 2013 on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, after landing on a flight from Canada, and remains on bail.

Detectives are looking for 29-year-old Moshin Ali Syed, who was in Britain from February to September 2010.

They also want to speak to Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran, 34, who was in Britain in September 2010, and have released CCTV footage of the two men.

The two men lived in Stanmore, a suburb neighbouring Edgware, prior to the murder, police said.

Mr Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over scores of charges including torture and murder related to the MQM’s activities, but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

He had twice been elected member of Pakistani parliament, but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi.

More than 200,000 mourners packed the streets of Karachi for his burial.

MQM is the most powerful political party in Karachi, but is run by exiled leader Altaf Hussain from a small office in Edgware.

For over two decades, Mr Hussain has addressed supporters through a loudspeaker linked to his home telephone. He was arrested in June on suspicion of money-laundering before being freed on bail.

The MQM has strongly denied any claim that the killing of Mr Farooq was linked to an internal dispute.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014