THATTA, Aug 15: The Rafiq Jalbani murder case took a new twist on Tuesday when police arrested a friend of the slain social activist and succeeded in extracting a confessional statement from him and recovering the weapon used in the crime.

Suspect Khurram Lakho, a friend of Rafiq Jalbani — son of senior journalist Abbas Jalbani — was arrested from Sachal Goth in Karachi. According to SHO Abdul Majeed Nagar of Makli police station, he told interrogators that he had killed Rafiq over a land dispute.

Lakho, the SHO added, said that on July 26 he went to Gharo from Karachi on a motorcycle and then “hired a taxi for Makli. There he knocked at the door of Rafiq and pumped two bullets into his body as soon as he opened the door”.

About the pistol used in the offence, he said he had thrown it into the bushes near Gharo on his way home. Accompanied by Abbas Jalbani, police searched the place, found a loaded TT pistol with five live bullets and seized it for chemical examination.

On Thursday, police produced the suspect in the court of first judicial magistrate Ali Imran Zaidi and obtained a three-day remand for further investigation. The judge ordered release of three other suspects earlier arrested in the case — Basheer Ahmed, Sattar Brohi and Habibullah Memon.

Later at a press conference, Abbas Jalbani expressed satisfaction over the police investigation, but said unless the vehicle used in the crime was recovered the involvement of the trio (Basheer, Sattar and Habibullah) in the murder could not be ruled out.