KARACHI: Police on Sunday detained four suspects allegedly involved in the killing of former TV journalist Aftab Alam and other recent murders in Central District.

A senior police official who wished not to be named told Dawn that police’s Counter-Terrorism Department detained one main suspect in Aftab Alam’s murder case. On his information, the police detained three more suspects.

Karachi-West DIG Feroze Shah while talking to Dawn confirmed arrests of the suspects in the TV journalist’s murder case.

The DIG said the held suspects belonged to a sect-based group which also had association with ‘a political party.’

Aftab Alam was killed in a gun attack when unknown assailants opened fire on him near his home in North Karachi's Sector 11-C. He was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared him dead after an external examination.

Feroze Shah claimed that Aftab Alam was not targeted on account of being a media person. He was targeted on sectarian grounds, believed the senior officer.

He said the arrested suspects were also allegedly involved in the killing of restaurant owner Rehan in Nazimabad on August 16.

They also allegedly killed two men, Imran and Waqas, in an attack on a bakery in Khawaja Ajmer Nagri on the same day when Aftab Alam was gunned down in North Karachi.

All suspects belong to the Deobandi school of thought, said the official.

He opined that the main motive of the killers was to stoke sectarian violence by targeting members of one particular sect with Muharram-ul-Haram approaching.