One of Pakistan's most notorious gangsters, the alleged mastermind of a string of murders of local politicians and policemen, was arrested yesterday in the country's crime-ridden commercial capital of Karachi.

"Lyari gang war leader Uzair Baluch has been arrested at outskirts of Karachi while entering the city," the Rangers paramilitary force said in a statement, with a photo showing him sitting handcuffed in a vehicle.

Baluch's criminal network controls much of Karachi's teeming Lyari slum. Local media have linked him to more than 20 cases of murder, extortion and terrorism and members of his gang have reportedly played football with the severed heads of his rivals.