Karachi: Law enforcement securities have intensified their crackdown on militants, arresting many of the assassins who carried out sectarian attacks as well as attacks on media and security forces.

Senior superintendent of police Muqaddas Haider said that a raiding team on Friday arrested Sarfraz, an activist of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni extremist outfit, who was involved in many sectarian murders.

The officer said the accused had also attacked a satellite van that belonged to a private television channel in Karachi, killing three workers.

Earlier, the counter terrorism department (CTD) of police had arrested a six-member team that was plotting to kill around 200 people during Ramadan.

Naveed Khawja, a CTD officer, told a press conference that his team carried a raid on a tip-off and rounded up the six suspects from hideouts in different parts of the city.

The suspects were identified as Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Mumtaz, Syed Sheeraz Ali, Syed Hamid Abbas, Pervez Hussain, and Syed Israr Ali.

The officer said that the team had been operating for five years and they carried out a recon of spots and had identified areas where around 200 people would have been potential targets.

The group, the police said, was also allegedly involved in an attempt to kill Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Farooqi survived the attack, but four policemen who had been guarding him and two civilians were killed in the attack.

The group was also involved in assassinating Fayyaz of Jamaat.

Khawja said that beside recon on many religious personalities, the gang had been plotting another attempt on Farooqi’s life.

He said that the gang had grown large beards to disguise themselves as Farooqi’s followers and hired a house in his neighbourhood.

The crackdown on the killers was intensified after the killing of prominent Sufi singer Amjad Sabri and kidnapping of Owais Shah, the son of the chief justice of Sindh High Court, in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the paramilitary Rangers also carried a raid at Dhabeji in Thatta district and rounded up eight workers of a political party.

An antiterrorism court once issued non-bailable warrants of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain and other leaders in connection with the murder of Shahid Hamid, the former managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation.