NAWABSHAH, Sept 24: The Nawabshah police arrested 18 persons allegedly involved in targeted killings and other terrorist activities in Karachi here on Tuesday.

According to police, Shaheed Benazirabad SSP Javed Jaskani received information that a car carrying some suspicious persons was moving around in the city. He constituted a team headed by DSP-City Aijaz Tareen, who raided Santa Singh goth, within the jurisdiction of the B Section police station, and detained three suspects.

After their interrogation, the police raided a place in Ahmed Khan Chandio village in the kutcha area of Qazi Ahmed and arrested 15 more persons. Besides, they also took into custody three more persons — Ubaidullah, Amanullah and Azizullah — for providing them with a hideout.

Those arrested included Gul Khan, Bilawal Pathan, Hazrat Mohammed, Sabeer Ahmed, Zahir Khan, Soorat Khan, Noor Ali, Ahmed Khan, Sardar Khan, Moosa Khan, Ameer, Habibullah, Najeebullah, Essa Khan, Faizullah, Salman Khan and Ghaffar Khan.

The police also seized a Kalashnikov, seven 9mm and a TT pistols, two cars and foreign currency from the held suspects, sources said.

All the held suspects belong to the Sohrab Goth and Al-Asif Square areas of Karachi.

The police also took into custody some 10 children aged from eight to10 years.

A police officer seeking anonymity told Dawn that the arrested persons had been nominated in various FIRs lodged at the Ferozabad and Sohrab Goth police stations.

SSP Javed Jaskani cancelled his press conference which was set to be held in his office at 1pm.

Sources said the press conference was cancelled on directives of the inspector general of police and all the arrested suspects were shifted to Karachi for further interrogation.