The Sindh government and police on Monday announced the arrest of four suspects from a proscribed outfit in the murder case of journalist and anchorperson Imtiaz Mir.

Mir, who was associated with Metro News television, was heading home in a car driven by his elder brother last month when six assailants riding two motorcycles fired a volley of bullets on his vehicle on the National Highway. The anchorperson sustained multiple bullet wounds and was taken to a private hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Journalists had strongly condemned the inaction by the police for failing to arrest the attackers and demanded their immediate arrest. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, many members of his cabinet and leaders of political parties had expressed their sorrow, with CM Shah directing the inspector general of police (IG) to immediately arrest the killers.

Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, IG Ghulam Nabi Memon and Additional IG Javed Alam Odho held a press conference today on updates regarding the case.

“Four people have been arrested in the murder of journalist Imtiaz Mir,” Lanjar said, adding that a joint operation was carried out by the Karachi police and a federal intelligence agency.

“The culprits belong to a banned organisation that used to take instructions from abroad,” he added.

Lanjar termed it a breakthrough in the murder case, adding that the bike used in the attack was also recovered.

The home minister said that Mir had given an interview in which he talked in “favour of Israel”, adding that it appeared to be “an exact motive” of the murder.

He said a sub-organisation of the proscribed Zainabiyoun Brigade was involved in the case.

Lanjar added that the primary suspect lived in a neighboring country, without specifying who he was referring to. The home minister alleged that the neighboring country was “providing funding and spreading chaos” in Pakistan.

Mir’s brother Riaz Ali had registered a case under Sections 34 (common intention) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Saudabad police station, nominating a man and his sons for the attack.

The complainant said that the attack was carried out at the behest of Umer Daraz and his two sons — Ahmed Bux and Aftab — with whom they had a land dispute in their native town in Jacobabad.

Saudabad Station House Officer Ateequr Rehman had told Dawn that both parties belonged to the same tribe. He recalled that the late anchorperson had also lodged an FIR against the same suspects at the Shah Latif Town police in 2023.

According to a report published last month by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), 87 journalists were killed in Pakistan between 2006 and 2023, with only two of those cases “resolved”.