HYDERABAD: Police have picked up six members of a family in connection with the alleged desecration of Holy Quran that took place in a plaza in Saddar area on Aug 21 and suspected one of them, and not the sanitary worker, of the crime.

One of the family members, a 20-year-old man, said to be mentally-challenged , was being linked with the incident.

A police source said that the man had disappeared from the plaza since the incident took place and police had traced him to his maternal grandparents` home where his family had sent him. `His statement was verified and matched with corroborative evidence collected by police,` said the source.

He said that ulema, who had raised voice against the incident on Aug 21, would be briefed by police authorities in this regard on Tuesday (today) andthey would also be allowed to speak to the suspect.

Afterwards, police would disclose his arrest of ficially, said the source.

Cantonment police had registered a case against the main suspect, a sanitary worker, under Sections 295-B and 34 PPC on a complaint lodged by one Bilal Abbasi.

The suspect is in police custody under court`s orders.

`The suspect picked up now confessed that it was he who desecrated the holy book in the plaza,` and claimed that he was under a `spell` and he did similar acts earlier as well, said a police source.

A four-member team headed by SP Headquarter Anil Hyder and SSP interrogated the suspect. `The team and the SSP now want to make the arrest public and allow ulama to speak to the suspect in custody,` said the source.

Sahibzada Zubair, head of Jamiat Ulema-i-PakistanNoorani, and Gulshan Illahi, a leader of Barelvi school of thought, confirmed they had received a message f rom the SSP of ficefor a meeting at 2pm on Tuesday. The agenda of the meeting was not conveyed to them, Zubair said.