LARKANA: Police have arrested, what they described as. the `mastermind` of the Feb 3 murder of Chandka Medical College Hospital`s store in-charge Arif Ali Abbasi, who was shot dead by armed motorcycle riders within the jurisdiction of the Dari police station.

The murder had triggered a series of protest demonstrations and boycott of duties by paramedics at the hospital. The police had declared it a`blind case`, but continued an investigation since then.

On Sunday, Larkana SSP Dr Mohammed Imran told Dawn that police had arrested the mastermind, Ali Hassan alias Pappu Khokhar, who happened to be a colleague of the deceased paramedic.

`Pappu was the key character who hatched the conspiracy to kill Abbasi. He executed the plan with the help of his two accomplices, who are still at large,` the SSP said, adding: `We are after them and will soon apprehend them with the help of their call data record (CDR), technological assistance and other means`.

Some relatives of the wanted suspects have been detained to force them to surrender themselves before the police.

The SSP said it was a blind murder case but the police succeeded in tracing out the culprits.

The minute details of the case would be shared with the media at a press conference later, he added.

SSP-Headquarters Asif Raza Baloch is heading the investigation team that resolved the case. Mohammed Sharif Abbasi, the brother of the deceased, had lodged the FIR at the Dari police station but did not have the idea as to who had killed his brother. He had simply stated in the FIR that two unknown suspects shot his brother dead.

Ali Hassan alias Pappu Khokhar was a colleague and predecessor of Arif Abbasi as CMCH store in-charge, according to sources.

Arif Abbasi, along with his friend Sajjad Mirjat, was on his way to a hospital in Dari on a motorycycle after Juma prayers when two assailants, also riding a motorcycle, shot him at point-blank range near Lal Bungalow on Feb 3 and sped away. Mirjat had escaped unhurt in the firing and Abbasi was rushed to the CMCH in a critical condition but he died a little later.