PESHAWA R: The CounterTerrorismDepartment(CTD) has claimed to have arrested a hitman believed to be involved in the killing of 32 people, including 15 policemen, in the city. He is said to have links with the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

CTD SSP Dr Mian Saeed told Dawn that the suspect was an Afghan national and had been settled on the outskirts of the city in Qazi Killay,wherehewasarrested.

The area has witnessed several incidents of targeted killing and bomb attacks on police personnel over the past few weeks.

The SSP identified the suspect as Mohammad Farid and said he had carried out terrorist activities for different militant organisations while using different aliases, including Raja, Sabit and Abdullah.

`During interrogation, the suspect has confessed to slaughtering five women allegedly involved in criminal activities in two separate incidents and throwing their mutilated body parts into the Kabul River,` the of ficial said.

Initially Farid was associated with the outlawed TTP, but later he defected to the Qari Imran group and finally joined the IS. He received training in the Jaba Toba camp in Afghanistan in 2008.

According to the SSP, the suspect has divulged the names of his accomplices, facilitators and financiers.

To finance his subversive activities, he also committed robberies and resorted to extortion.

One of the suspect`s brothers was reportedly killed in an encounter with security forces and another was arrested in Afghanistan for having links with the IS.