KARACHI: AIG of Karachi police, Shahid Hayat, has said a man suspected of involvement in the killing of Naimat Ali Randhawa, a lawyer involved in the Wali Babar murder case, has been arrested on Tuesday.

During a press conference held at the Central Police Office, Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Karachi Shahid Hayat, who was accompanied by the Rangers sector commander and West Karachi DIG Javed Alam Odho, named the suspect as one Kazim Abbasi Rizvi and said he was associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Unit 178.

The senior lawyer, who was also a leader of the Sindh PML-N’s legal wing, was shot dead in an attack in the city’s Nazimabad area on Thursday that also left his lawyer son injured.

Hayat was asked whether Randhawa's killing had a sectarian dimension, responding to which, the police chief said the lawyer's killing was of a political, not sectarian, nature.

He said that during initial investigation, the accused had confessed to killing Randhawa.

The accused is also involved in target killings of eight other people, said the AIGP. Raids were being conducted to arrest three other accomplices of the accused, he added.

Police claimed to have recovered a 9MM pistol with five rounds from his possession. The accused was arrested under the Sindh Armed Act.

Answering a question, the Karachi police chief said the ongoing targeted operation was against criminals irrespective of their political affiliation. He said police carried out targeted action whenever they received information about the presence of criminals in any area, be it Lyari, Sohrab Goth or Azizabad. He added that it would take time to clear ‘the chaos’ of 23 years.

Moreover without naming MQM, a spokesman of Pakistan Rangers Sindh has said that Indian-made weapons were seized from the office of a political party in Landhi area of the city.

Both developments have drawn severe condemnation from the MQM, as its Rabita Committee has declared them as continuation of ‘political victimisation’ of the party.

“This media trial of MQM is being carried out through a planned conspiracy,” said the committee in a statement.

The Rabita Committee said it was unfair to declare someone guilty without proofs and evidences merely on the basis of an allegation.

In a statement, the MQM coordination committee condemned allegations levelled by Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat regarding the involvement of the MQM worker in the case.

It said that the police official had stated at a press conference that Kazim Abbas Rizvi had been arrested on Monday night, but he had been in police custody for five days, since his detention on Sept 27.

The MQM said police had earlier arrested former MQM lawmaker Nadeem Hashmi in the case of killing of two policemen but the allegation turned out to be false and he was released. “Now they are trying to falsely implicate the MQM in the Randhawa murder case.”

Muttahida also demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for the formation of the promised impartial monitoring committee to oversee the Karachi operation. “It was imperative to form such a committee at the earliest so that innocents are saved from being targeted in the future,” they added.

The revelation came in the wake of yet another row between the MQM, and the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh over an operation that has seen MQM lawmakers and activists being arrested.

The MQM has dubbed the operation as one-sided action against its office bearers.

Wali Khan Babar, a journalist who worked for a private television channel, was gunned down in January 2011 in Liaquatabad area of the port city.

Several witnesses in the journalist’s murder case have been killed and the fact has also attracted the apex court's attention.

Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah had recently told a press conference that one of the witnesses in the Babar murder case was still alive and was being given ample security.

Karachi, a sprawling port city on the Arabian Sea and economic hub of Pakistan, has long been beset by religious, sectarian and ethnic strife. Here armed wings of political parties battle for control of the city, Sunnis and Shias die in tit-for-tat sectarian killings, and Taliban gunmen attack banks and kill police officers.