KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested five suspects allegedly involved in the last week’s killing of a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) worker in Orangi Town.

Wasim Siddiqui was gunned down by armed assailants near Jamaatul Mursaleen Masjid on Jan 2.

A police spokesperson said that a team used technical and human intelligence and managed to arrest three “hired assassins” and two others who gave the contract (supari) of killing.

The police identified the hitmen as Zafar Muhammad, Sheikh Majid Ali and Ahed Rashid and two others as victim’s relatives Muhammad Waseem and Shahzeb.

They had given Rs300,000 to the hitmen for killing the JI worker over some personal enmity, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Suspect Zafar, who belonged to a banned outfit, was earlier arrested in a bomb blast case in Orangi Town on June 13, 2004 but later released from prison. He was also arrested by the Orangi Town police in 2019 over possession of an illicit weapon.

Police sources said that the murder of the JI worker was not motivated by any political or religious reasons.

They said that a sister of suspect Shahzeb was married to a brother of the deceased and a domestic dispute had led to the murder.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2024