KARACHI: Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested a suspect, said to be associated with a banned militant outfit, and recovered a grenade and a pistol from his possession.

“The Steel Town police arrested Muqeem alias Shah as he was involved in targeted killings, extortion and other heinous crimes,” a police spokesperson said.

The held suspect belonged to a banned religious outfit, but the police did not name the outfit.

The police said that Muqeem was a brother of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militant Sheikh Mumtaz alias Firun who had escaped from the Karachi central prisons some years ago and later was killed with security forces during an encounter in Balochistan when he was reportedly returning from Afghanistan.

The police had arrested the suspect’s two other brothers — Sheikh Mohammed Moinudin and Arbaz alias Aryan on Nov 21 and recovered explosives, grenades and other arms and ammunition from their custody.

“The held suspect used to provide shelter to the killed militant Mumtaz and others,” said a police statement.

It said that militants linked with the banned outfit used to hide arms and explosives at his home and later used them for targeted killings of policemen and other terror acts.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2020