KARACHI, Sept 15: Police on Wednesday arrested two activists of the banned Tehrik-i-Jaffaria Pakistan for their alleged involvement in sectarian killings.

DSP Raja Omar Khattab of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) told Dawn that Ali Raza Farishta alias Ali Khoja and Ali Abbas alias Ashar Abbas were arrested for being involved in killing 20 people and injuring more than 15 others in different incidents since 1994.

The victims included three Thai students of a Buffer Zone madressah and eight worshippers in a Ferozabad mosque. He said 10 separate cases were registered against them in Soldier Bazaar, Khwaja Ajmer Nagri, Ferozabad, Kharadar, Gulbahar and other police stations.

The suspects belonged to the banned organization's splinter group of Dr Haider Abbas, who had been killed in 2001, when he was counter-fired upon during an attack on a camp of Harkatul Mujahideen, Mr Khattab said. Ashar Abbas recently returned from abroad and regrouped his supporters under the banner of Baqueetullah.

SUICIDE: A man and a woman committed suicide in separate incidents here on Wednesday. Police said the body of Mohammad Hussain Kachhi was found floating near West Wharf. It was taken out from the sea and sent to the Civil Hospital.

Police said they believed that Hussain, 45, resident of an apartment in Garden West, jumped off the Native's Jetty bridge as he had been frustrated for being jobless for the past two months. In another incident, Khursheed Begum, 25, the mother of three, hanged herself in her home in Zaman Town.