Karachi - Law enforcement agencies claimed to have arrested 37 criminals, including five assassins affiliated with political groups, on Monday. Huge cache of weapons was also recovered from them. The Crime Investigation Department's Anti-Extremist Cell arrested five alleged assassins involved in killings of 17 political workers, while 22 suspects, including political workers and gangsters of Lyari, were apprehended by officials of the Sindh Rangers in the ongoing surgical operation. According to details, the five assassins, Ali Akbar alias Shahid, Abid, Imran and Ali Ahmed alias Ganja, were nabbed in separate raids on Pak Colony and Baldia Town. "They have links to two political parties," SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan said of the criminals. "The assassins nabbed from Pak Colony confessed to having killed at least 17 activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi," said the SSP while adding that they had involvement in some 15 robbery cases. The assassins had killed six MQM workers in Orangi Town and another six, Atiqur Rehman, Asif Ali, Munir, Naeem, Ejaz Baig, and Ajmal alias Lalu, in Mehmoodabad area and Shah Faisal Colony. The killers arrested from Baldia Town confessed that they had killed five people, including Irfan, Imran alias Mamu, Naeem alias Machera, in Brigade and Baldia towns. Nevertheless, several suspected criminals were rounded up by Sindh Rangers personnel in Malir, Lyari, Old City, Shah Faisal Colony, Orangi Town, Baldia Town, New Karachi area and at Jinnah Square. All entry and exit points to the said areas were cordoned off during the overnight raids, sources said. In Malir, six criminals were arrested. They had been shifted to an undisclosed location for further investigation. According to the sources, the detainees also included political workers. But their identities and political affiliations were not disclosed. In a raid on Bihar Colony, notorious Lyari gangster Baba Ladla's brother, namely Rashid, and Mama Yasin were captured. According to the sources, seven more suspects were detained by Rangers officials from Lyari. In Old City area, Akram Baloch's nephew Sameer was held from Salar Compound. Raids were also conducted in Sherpao Colony, Qasba Colony, Gulshan-e-Jamaal, Natha Khan Goth, Falak Naz apartments, Muslimabad, Aligarh Colony, Banaras, Daud Goth and Pakistan Bazaar. Rangers personnel detained At least 35 suspects were arrested in targeted operations in Malir and other parts of the city. However, 17 people were released, afterwards. Thirty-eight weapons, among them kalashnikovs, repeaters, shotguns and pistols, as well as 2,000 rounds were seized in the raids. Late in the day, police detained two suspects in a raid on Liaquatabad. They had been taken to an undisclosed location for investigation. The two arrests were not disclosed to the media.