Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested three suspects over their alleged involvement men in the murder of Sajawal Ameer, a 22-year-old 'captain' of the popular ride-hailing service Careem in Rawalpindi, DawnNewsTV reported.

Potohar Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Syed Ali said the suspects were arrested from different areas of Rawalpindi. One of the suspects is an Afghan citizen who also had a Pakistani national identity card, the SP said, adding that the person who hailed the cab ride was also among those arrested.

Police have also recovered cash and both mobile phones, that belonged to the deceased captain, from the possession of the accused.

The police will produce the suspects before a local court on Thursday and appeal for a physical remand, the official said.

On Monday night, Ameer had picked up a passenger from outside a banquet hall in Rawalpindi and was told to drive to Lakho, where he was ambushed by two men. When Ameer resisted the robbers, he was shot five times and left fatally injured while the murderers escaped with the captain's mobile phone, cash and car.

Locals found Ameer after a while in the fields of Lakho — a sparsely populated area of Rawalpindi — and informed the police and rescue services. The Careem captain was taken to a private hospital first and then to the District Headquarters Hospital, where he died on Tuesday morning.

Police later found the car Ameer was driving abandoned in Rawalpindi's Chohar Chowk.

Naseerabad Station House Officer (SHO) Chaudhry Akhtar had expressed suspicion that the rider had been acting in connivance with the robbers.

Police had lodged a first information report with the car's owner and Ameer's roommate Amir Mushtaq as the complainant.

Terming the incident as a "tragedy for the entire Careem family", the cab-hailing company had called upon the law enforcement agencies to LEAs to "ensure that our cities are made safer and our citizens do not have to fear for their lives when they leave their houses to earn an honest living" in an emailed statement to Dawn.com on Tuesday.