Police officers examine the site where Imran Farooq was killed outside his home at Green Lane, Edgware, north London. – Photo by AP (File)

LONDON: British police on Thursday arrested the suspected killer of Imran Farooq, the self-exiled Pakistani politician whose stabbing death in London sparked riots in Karachi.

Scotland Yard said officers detained a 34-year-old man at his home in the north London neighborhood of Camden for questioning. The man, who was not identified, was also being questioned on suspicion of robbery, police said.

The 50-year-old Farooq was on his way home from work when he was beaten and stabbed to death in broad daylight on Sept. 16.

Farooq had been living in self-imposed exile in London since fleeing Pakistan in 1992. He was a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or MQM, one of Pakistan's major parties and the largest in the coalition governing his hometown of Karachi. The city erupted into violence at the news of his death.

An MQM leader had said the party believed Farooq was killed in response to controversial statements made by the leader of party, Altaf Hussain, who himself lives in London.

The party represents mainly descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who settled in Pakistan when it was created in 1947.

Police are still looking for two other men for questioning. – AP