KARACHI, March 21: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested three members of a gang involved in around 30 targeted killings.

Speaking at his first press conference after becoming city police chief, Saud Ahmed Mirza described the suspects as mercenaries, adding that they were paid for the killings.

However, CCPO Mirza stopped short of disclosing the identity of the people who he said were behind the killings and were paying for the hits.

He sought to relate the arrests to the current wave of targeted killings in the city.

He said that Rao Mohammad, Mohammad Nadeem Khan and Babar Ali were members of the Mudassir chief gang. They were involved in 30 acts of targeted killings and were wanted in at least 24 FIRs.

According to a handout distributed during the press conference, the suspects were arrested after an encounter with police near Dubai House in Block 6 Gulistan-i-Jauhar. However, their three accomplices managed to flee, the handout added.

The police claimed to have seized two AK-47 assault rifles, two hand grenades, a 223-bore rifle, an 8mm rifle, five kilos of hashish, and 350 rounds of different weapons from the possession of the suspects.—Staff Reporter