KARACHI, March 2: Police on Wednesday arrested after a shootout on Mauripur Road a convicted absconder wanted in the Sheraton suicide bombing case. However, five of his associates escaped, police said.

Eleven French engineers and three Pakistanis were killed in the May 2002 blast outside the Sheraton Hotel on Club Road. Police said that a CID party was on trail of six suspects who were passing through the Mauripur Road on two motorcycles.

As police team tried to come close to the suspects, there ensued a brief shootout during which one of the suspects fell off his motorcycle. His other associates fled.

Mohammad Sohail, belonging to the banned Harkatul Muhjahideen Al Alami, had been convicted in absentia by an anti-terrorism court in June 2003 in the Sheraton blast case, a CID official said.