Police in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang of extortionists operating from South Africa who were targeting doctors and pharmaceutical companies and were involved in target killings.

Karachi-West DIG Feroze Shah told a news conference that police arrested three extortionists who worked with a gang in South Africa. This gang through its members in Karachi used to target doctors and pharmaceutical companies and even homeopath practioners and send them extortion slips, Shah said. Some of those who didn't comply with the extortion demands were killed by these people, he said.

South Africa is said to be home to activists of some political parties who fled Pakistan some years ago to escape prosecution and arrest in criminal cases. "We have arrested three extortionists from Khawaja Ajmair Nagri and Jauharbad and recovered extortion slips, mobile sims, computers and currency exchange slips from them," he said. "It is an international gang of extortionists who operated out of South Africa and even Afghanistan," he added.

Shah said several doctors had even left the country due to fear and because of the extortion and death threats. Shah said the money generated through extortion was being sent to South Africa through the account of the wife of one Junaid Baghdadi, resident of Johannesburg, South Africa.

He disclosed that the police had approached the federal government for the arrest of extortionists based in South Africa.