Karachi police chief Farooq Qureshi told reporters last week that the police had arrested the two men: Ahmad Saeed (27) aka Bharum, and Saleem (30) aka Ganja, in Karachi in January 1999. After police investigations, it was discovered that the two were involved in the November 1997 killing of four American employees of the Union Texas oil company and their Pakistani driver on a busy Karachi bridge.

The two men were presented to the press by the Karachi police chief and they publicly confessed to their crime. Qureshi said that the arrest had been kept secret at the time so that further investigations could be carried out to trace the accomplices tothe crime. ``We kept quiet because of the sensitive nature of the case,'' he added.

Qureshi also claims that the two men are members of the Karachi based MQM party and the killings were conducted on the orders of MQM chief Altaf Hussain, who is currently living in exile in England. At the time of the killings, the MQM and the ruling PML-N party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were coalition partners.

Police officials say that the MQM ordered the killings to ``create chaos in Karachi''. In October 1998, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif broke away his coalition alliance with the MQM and said that the party was behind the killings and terrorism in the city. Since then, there has been a crackdown against MQM workers in the city and all over Pakistan.

For its part, the MQM says that the arrests are politically motivated. MQM leader Nasrin Jalil told journalists in Karachi that the government had arrested the two men on trumped up charges. ``We hope the Americans are handed over the two suspects so that the truthemerges. As things stand, we are not hopeful of justice at the hands of the Nawaz Sharif government,'' she said.

The US Embassy in Pakistan has refrained from issuing any statement. There have also been no moves by the government to involve any Americans in the investigations, say observers. When asked whether any American officials have been allowed to meet the two suspects, the Karachi police chief refused to comment, citing security limitations.

Another MQM activist was also arrested by the government in 1998 on the same charges. However, there was not enough evidence against him.

A report in a local English language daily suggests that there is a tussle within the Karachi police over claiming the 2 million dollar reward that the US government has offered for information leading to the arrest of the murderers of the four American citizens. ``The accused were arrested by local police inspector Haider Baig but after the question of claiming the reward arose, the case was transferred to the CrimesInvestigation Agency (CIA),'' says the report.