KARACHI, March 1: Zulfiqar, a suspect arrested immediately after the attack on a police picket close to the US consulate on Friday, was remanded in police custody on Saturday till March 8.

Two policemen were killed and five others, including a rangers official and a civilian, wounded in the attack.

Zulfiqar was brought to the high court amid stringent security. The homicide investigation police submitted before Justice Shabbir Ahmed, administrative judge for the anti-terrorist courts, Karachi division, that he was caught red-handed while trying to escape from the scene. Zulfiqar has been booked under sections-302, 324, 353 and 397 of the PPC and section-7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

In another FIR relating to the same offence, he has been nominated as an accused under section 13(d) of the Arms Ordinance for keeping an illicit firearm.

The police requested remand for interrogation and investigation of the offence and also for arresting his accomplice, who managed to flee. Zulfiqar was clad in a chaadar when produced in in the court. According to the police, he hailed from Multan.

Although the court remanded the alleged assailant in police custody, the police denied having taken his custody.

A senior police official, who requested anonymity, said the suspect was taken away by rangers for further investigation on promise that he would be handed over to the police later, hopefully on Sunday.

A spokesman for the rangers said: “We do not have the custody of the attacker and he is with the police after the court remanded him in police custody. Now the police are advancing the investigation.”

The DIG Investigation, Fayyaz Leghari, said the arrested man was identified as Zulfiqar Ali, hailing from Punjab. He stated that Zulfiqar had been living in Karachi for the last 18 years along with his father who had hired a house in Naval Colony.

“We have associated Zulfiqar’s brother and father in the investigation. They told us that Zulfiqar got ordinary education and had been jobless for the past six months. His activities over the last few months were doubtful,” he added.

Mr Leghari, who was not sure about the suspect’s affiliation with any terrorist group, said the suspect had still been retracting his earlier statements.

He said in the initial stage of the investigation, he identified himself as Sikandar but later his identity was established as Zulfiqar Ali.

Sources close to the investigators said that the attack was not carried out by Zulfiqar alone. They opined that there might at least be two accomplices present at the scene when the picket was attacked.

According to the sources, Zulfiqar told the investigators that he did not snatch the sub-machinegun from the constable, Alam Zeb, in the public lavatory of Frere Garden. He further told them that his companion snatched the weapon and handed over to him to carry out the attack, they added.

The sources quoted Zulfiqar as telling the investigators that he worked with a textile factory and was rendered jobless about six months back.

He came across a person, in his early 50s, in Clifton who introduced himself as Abu Sufyan. Zulfiqar could not name two other persons associated with Abu Sufyan and met him at the same place. Zulfiqar revealed that Abu Sufyan had committed Rs400,000 if he accomplished the task of attacking the picket.

Investigators cast doubts over credibility of Zulfiqar’s statement saying that he was hiding something. They were of the view that the suspect was trying to keep the motive secret.

Meanwhile, police and rangers have picked up more than a dozen people having links with the suspect. His father, Abdul Hameed (a mechanic) and his brother, Iftekhar (a worker at fisheries), said Zulfiqar was not a practising Muslim.