A leading member of the Ulster Defence Association has been murdered in south Belfast on Wednesday night.
The victim has been named locally as Colin “Bap” Lindsay who died after being stabbed at a house in Kirkistown Walk on the loyalist Belvoir estate in the south of the city.
Another man is in a critical condition in hospital following the assault which followed an all-day drinking session at the property.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said on Wednesday night that one man has been arrested.
Loyalist sources in south Belfast told the Guardian that Lindsay had been stabbed with a cutlass-like sword. It is understood the arrested man gave himself up after returning to his own home covered in blood and informing a member of his family that he had stabbed the UDA commander in the area.
There is no suggestion the fatal attack on the veteran UDA man is linked to any internal feuding within the organisation or was sectarian, sources close to the loyalist paramilitary group stressed. They said the incident was due to a dispute that had been broken out after drinking in the area.
Lindsay was originally from the Ballynafeigh area of south Belfast but moved out to the outskirts of the city to Belvoir. He was a close associate of UDA veterans Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder who were shot dead by the IRA just before republicans declared a 1994 ceasefire.
