GILGIT, June 6: Gilgit police have arrested a suspect in last year's high-profile murder of a religious leader and former MNA, Azam Tariq, the local police chief said on Sunday.

Syed Hussain Shah alias Abbas, was wanted by Islamabad police for the Oct 6 killing of Tariq, his driver and three bodyguards on the outskirts of the capital, police chief Sakhiullah Tareen said.

Shah was rounded up from a house in Gilgit during a search operation on Friday, he said. "We have handed over the suspect to the Islamabad police," Tareen told AFP. Tariq, 42, was leader of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).

The group was outlawed along with four other groups, including its Shia counterpart Sipah-i-Mohammad Pakistan, in January 2002 in a crackdown on sectarian violence. -AFP