KARACHI: An eyewitness identified Muttahida man Kazim Abbas Rizvi as the killer of Advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa during an identification parade held at Karachi’s City Court on Saturday.

The senior lawyer Randhawa, who was also a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s (PML-N) legal wing in Sindh, was shot dead in an attack in the city’s Nazimabad area on September 26 that also left his lawyer son injured.

The accused person Kazim Abbas was arrested on October 1. He was produced in court today amidst tight security where he was identified as the killer by an eyewitness.

During a press conference held at the Central Police Office on October 1, Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Karachi Shahid Hayat had said that the man suspected of involvement in the killing of Randhawa, a lawyer involved in the Wali Babar murder case, had been arrested.

He had named the suspect as Kazim Abbasi Rizvi and said he was associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Unit 178.

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

The AIGP had said that the accused was involved in target killings of eight other people, adding that raids were being conducted to arrest three other accomplices of the accused.

The arrest had drawn severe condemnation from the MQM, as its Rabita Committee declared it as continuation of ‘political victimisation’ of the party.

In a statement released earlier this week, the party alleged that a media trial was being carried out against the MQM through “a planned conspiracy.”

In the statement, the MQM coordination committee had condemned allegations leveled 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.”