Police claim arrest of 'Karachi knifeman' in Mandi Bahauddin

GUJRANWALA: The infamous knifeman – who has carried out over a dozen assaults on women in Karachi – has been arrested from Mandi Bahauddin city of Punjab, police sources claimed.

According to the sources, the police acted swiftly after receiving an intelligence tip-off about his presence.

Officials have identified the knife-wielding suspect as Waseem, who has been shifted to an undisclosed location for an interrogation.

The suspect will be brought to Karachi for further interrogation, sources said.

However, the mystery still surrounds the motive behind the knife assaults on women, besides the number of attackers involved in the assaults.

On Friday, police had claimed to have arrested an accomplice of the knife attacker. The alleged attacker, Mohammad Shehzad, was arrested after a knife was recovered from his possession.

As many as 15 women were stabbed by the knife-wielding suspect in various neighbourhoods of Gulshan Town in span of 10 days.

The stabbing spree began on September 25 and the last incident was reported on Oct 5.

Attackers’ modus operandi 

Earlier, Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah claimed a major clue had been found in connection with Karachi knife attacks. “The police is investigating to get to the core of the matter,” he claimed, adding that police had a number of reasons to believe that at least two suspects were involved in the attacks.

Claiming the attacker’s modus operandi in Karachi has significant similarities with the assaults that were carried out in Punjab’s Sahiwal city, the chief minister said: “One of the suspect is believed to hail from Sahiwal in Punjab, while another belongs to Karachi.

The suspect, Waseem, is from Sahiwal who was arrested in a joint operation by Sindh and local police today (Sunday). He has been allegedly involved in over thirty similar attacks in Punjab.”

Attacker’s appearance 

In light of the CCTV footage, police revealed that the assailant on a motorcycle, wearing a helmet, using sharp objects like paper cutter and knife to carry out attacks on women.

Previously, Sindh government had announced a prize money of Rs0.5 million for anyone who provides the law enforcement agencies any information with regard to the identity of the attacker.

The pictures taken from a CCTV footage showed the knife attacker on the bike appeared to be a thin man aged 20 to 29 years. Police said that the suspect’s height ranges from 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inch.