31 July 2004	Saturday	13 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, July 30: Unknown persons shot dead a councillor in North Nazimabad late on Thursday night. Police said that Zoma Rehman, 28, UC-5 councillor, had come to a marriage hall to book the premises for the vilema reception of his brother.

As he came out of the hall, unknown persons sprayed him with bullets and fled on motorcycles, the police added. Police said that the victim suffered nine bullet wounds. His body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. The victim's friend Shahnawaz lodged an FIR against unknown persons, police added.

DIES: An injured young man, who was left outside a private hospital in Azizabad by unknown persons on Friday morning, died shortly after. Police said that the young man, identified as Mohammad Khurram, 26, had a bullet wound in the neck and was wanted by the Joharabad police in several robbery cases.

The claimed said that the suspect was involved in the Thursday's police encounter in Sharifabad, in which a policeman had died. The police had earlier claimed that they had wounded a suspect, who managed to flee from the spot of encounter. Several rounds of bullets and three cell phones were also recovered from the victim, the police added.

ACCIDENT: A truck cleaner died when he got crushed beneath the wheels of the vehicle at which he worked, at Mauripur Road on Friday. Police said that Mohammad Amin, 25, was sleeping on the truck's roof when the accident occurred.

His body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for legal formalities by the police. In another accident, a fifty-year-old woman died in a hit-and-run accident in Gulbahar on late Thursday night.

Police said that the women, Bismillah, was crossing the main road at Golimar No 2 when she was hit by a speeding vehicle. She was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where she died during treatment on Friday.

RECOVERED: The bodies of the father and son who had drowned near Sonara beach on Thursday were washed ashore at different places on Friday. Edhi sources said that body of Abrar Ahmed Chohan, 32, was found near Hub Power Plant, while the body of six-year-old Wahid Ahmed Chohan was found at Sonara beach.

The bodies were taken to the victims' residence in Malir, Saudabad, by the Edhi Foundation for funeral and burial.

ARRESTED: Police on Friday busted two criminal gangs in Gulshan-i- Iqbal and Aziz Bhatti police limits. Gulshan TPO Abdul Khaliq Shaikh told Dawn that notorious car snatchers were arrested in Gulshan when they were roaming in the area.

The suspects identified as Mohammad Arshad Laghari, Qasim Jamali, Khair Mohammad Bugti and Shahnawaz Bugti, were moving in their own car (T-4910), when the police arrested them. Four TT pistols were also recovered from them.

A suspect Shahnawaz Bugti was an absconder in several cases of vehicle snatching and was wanted by the ACLC, the police claimed. Meanwhile, Aziz Bhatti police on Friday busted a gang comprising four persons, and recovered three TT pistols, along with a snatched motorcycle, from their possession.

The police said that the suspects used to commit robberies on rented vehicles. The suspects were identified as Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Zubair, and Arsalan. Two pistols, including a fake one, were recovered from their possession.