KARACHI, April 25: Police claimed to have arrested the fourth absconding suspect in the Ramaswami gang-rape case on Thursday.

Police said Qamar Iqbal had been arrested near an eating-house in Ranchhore Lines.

The suspect is a constable in the investigation department of police. The ring leader, identified as Malik Hasnat, son of DSP Ghulam Shabbir Awan, is still absconding.

Earlier, three suspects, Malik Safeer, a dismissed constable, Kashif and Azmatullah, were arrested by police following the gang-rape of two girls in Ramaswami on April 1.

The next day when area people came to know of the gang-rape of two sisters by policemen in Ramaswami, they took to roads where they lit bonfires, hurled brickbats at police and disrupted traffic.

Police resorted to shelling to disperse the protesters.

The city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, in a statement, condemned the gang-rape, and said the policemen involved in the crime would be given exemplary punishment.

Police also claimed to have arrested an absconding suspect in the murder case of Javed Abdul Majeed, a shopkeeper. He was shot dead by bandits at the electronics market in Saddar on April 10.

Police said shopkeepers caught Shahid on the spot. His accomplice, Ashiq, had been arrested in Lahore on Thursday. He was being flown to Karachi on Thursday night, a spokesman for police said.