KARACHI, Oct 5: An eyewitness to the killing of Advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa, whose identity was withheld for security reasons, identified on Saturday Kazim Abbas Rizvi, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, as one of the killers in the court of a judicial magistrate.

Suspect Rizvi and the witness, with their faces muffled, were brought amid tightened security to the court of a judicial magistrate (central), which was surrounded by a sizeable contingent of police and Rangers.

Media persons were not allowed to enter the courtroom where the identification parade of the suspected killer was held as the police authorities did not disclose the identity of the eyewitness for his security.

It was later learnt that the eyewitness rightly picked out the suspected killer from a set of dummies.

Prosecution sources said that the judicial magistrate sealed the proceedings and the report of the identification parade of the suspect and sent it to the trial court.

The suspect, who was arrested on Sept 30, was earlier given in police custody till Oct 18 for interrogation and investigation.

Earlier on Tuesday, Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat had said that suspect Rizvi was associated with the Unit 178 of the MQM organisational structure, adding that during the initial investigation, the suspect had confessed to killing Advocate Randhawa.

He said that the suspect had killed the lawyer for pursuing the case of TV reporter Wali Khan Babar who had been killed in 2011.

The suspect is also involved in targeted killings of eight other people, DIG Hayat had said during Tuesday's briefing, adding that raids were being carried out to arrest three other accomplices of the suspect.

Police had claimed to have recovered a 9mm pistol with five rounds from his possession.

Randhawa, a senior lawyer, who was also a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz legal wing for Sindh, was shot dead in an attack in the North Nazimabad area last week. The attack had also left his son wounded.

Wali Babar, a journalist who worked for a private television channel, was gunned down in January 2011 in Liaquatabad. Several witnesses in the journalist’s murder were killed one after the other, developments which also attracted the apex court's attention.

The suspect’s arrest and the allegations levelled against him by DIG Hayat had drawn criticism from the MQM’s coordination committee.

According to the committee, Rizvi, an employee of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, had been in police custody since his detention on Sept 27.

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court directed the provincial authorities to provide effective security to Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof, who is appearing in the Wali Babar murder case.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso gave this direction on the application of the prosecutor who had asked the court for provision of security in view of the killing of Advocate Randhawa who was appearing in the case on behalf of the complainant and the prosecution witnesses.

‘Assassin’ & ‘Lyari gangster’ remanded

A suspect allegedly involved in over 100 murder cases was on Saturday remanded in police in a case pertaining to the killing of a police official.

Suspect Shujaat Ali Hashmi was brought to the court of ATC Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso amid extraordinary security arrangements.

According to remand papers, the police sought his custody and submitted that the suspect disclosed to have killed Zafar Iqbal on July 20 when the victim was on way to a mosque for Tarveeh prayers in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

They said that the custody of the suspect was required to track down two absconders — Osama and Umair alias Jailer.

Meanwhile, another ATC judge, Salim Raza Baloch, remanded alleged Lyari gangster Amin Buledi in police custody till Oct 9 for interrogation and investigation.