The Sindh police on Monday asked the provincial government to approach its Balochistan counterpart for the arrest of tribal leader Shahzain Marri, whose guards were held last week for allegedly torturing a citizen in Karachi.

The development comes after Karachi’s South Zone police arrested several “guards”, who were seen in a viral video attacking two occupants of a car in the city’s Boat Basin area. While the police had claimed arresting seven guards, a later document written by the police states that five guards were taken into custody.

The prime suspect was identified as Shahzain Marri, a grandson of late Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bux Marri, according to South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza. The guards worked for Marri, who — along with his security men — had tortured a citizen before fleeing to Balochistan.

Sindh Inspector General (IG) Ghulam Nabi Memon wrote a letter to the provincial chief home secretary today, requesting the Sindh government to take up the matter of the arrests of two suspects, Marri and Ghulam Qadir, with its Balochistan counterpart.

IG Memon’s letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, referred to a previous letter written by DIG Raza to him on February 28, when the guards were arrested.

The South DIG’s letter, a copy of which is seen by Dawn.com, had requested the Sindh police chief to approach his Balochistan counterpart to facilitate the arrest of Marri and Qadir.

According to the DIG’s letter, five security guards were arrested, while the location of Qadir, another suspect, had been traced to Balochistan.

The arrest had been made after Barkat Ali Soomro, an office-bearer of the Sindh People’s Youth Organisation, lodged a first information report (FIR) with the Boat Basin police station.

As per the DIG’s letter, Soomro filed the FIR against “five/six unknown armed” suspects for allegedly beating him and his friend Waqas Ahmed with a “pistol butt”, as well as threatening them at 3am on February 19.

It stated that Soomro was going with Ahmed in his car when a Surf jeep came from behind as they reached a service road near Boat Basin. Despite them “giving way” to the car, the jeep “driver reverse[d] the car by hitting his car and 5/6 unknown armed accused persons came” out of the vehicle, the letter added.

Quoting the FIR, the letter said the suspects were allegedly “intoxicated from alcohol, attacked upon him and his friend, threatened them for dire consequences and beat them with pistol butt”, injuring Soomro.

A video that went viral last week showed a four-by-four vehicle bumped against an Alto car at Boat Basin. As seen in the video, several armed men got out of the vehicle and began hitting Soomro and Waqas.

DIG Raza had said on Friday that operations were also underway to arrest other people involved in the incident.

He said “modern weapons” had been recovered from the possession of the arrested guards, adding that the arms were being examined to see whether they had licences.