November 07, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 8, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 6: A 22-year-old man was found shot dead in Hyderabad Colony early on Thursday morning in front of the house of the woman he wanted to marry, police and witnesses said.

The Jamshed Quarter police said Syed Abu Talha, a resident of F.C. Area and clerk in the ministry of housing and works, committed suicide in front of the woman’s house at around 3.45am.

They said a pistol and a mobile phone was found beside the body.

The police said a photograph of the woman was also found in the victim’s wallet.

The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination. Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section said that a bullet pierced the skull from right.

The SP of Jamshed Town, Javed Akbar Riyaz, told Dawn that the young man committed suicide in front of the house of a 21-year-old woman, whom he wanted to marry.

The SP said the victim had been seeking to marry the girl for the past two years after he had made her acquaintance at a coaching centre in Liaquatabad.

“He came to her house at around 3am and told her over the phone to come out to talk to him,” he added.

The police officer said the families of the victim and the woman were aware of their acquaintance.

“The victim’s family took his proposal of marriage to the woman’s family several times but the proposal was always rejected,” he said.

The SP quoted the woman as telling the police investigators that the young man had come to her house to persuade her to reconsider her decision. “However, she told him that nothing would induce her to marry him,” he added.

He said the woman’s family had already got her Nikah solemnised with a man. “Still he wanted her to marry him,” he added.

The SP said apparently the victim pressed the pistol to his head and sent a bullet through the skull. “But we are still investigating the matter, though there was only one per cent chance of the victim having been killed by someone else,” he added.

Bullet-riddled body

The bullet-riddled nude body of a young man was found at a desolate place near Bilawal Shah Noorani Goth.

The Sachal police said the body was wrapped in a canvas and it was spotted by a passerby a little after dawn. They shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a postmortem examination.

Medico-legal sources at the hospital told Dawn that the victim received seven bullets, most of them in the upper torso. They said the body also bore several marks of torture.

The sources said the victim appeared to be in his mid-20s.

Policeman injured

A constable was beaten and allegedly injured by a group of PPP workers at a party camp set up for the Balochistan earthquake victims on Sharea Faisal, the police said.

They said the PPP workers were beating someone when the constable, Mubarak of the Sharea Faisal police, arrived there and tried to intervene.

The police said that the party workers gave a hiding to the policeman, who was rescued by a Rangers’ patrol.

They said five people – Kashif, Rana, Ijaz, Nadim and Shoaib -- were picked up at the scene and brought to the police station, which was later raided by a group of PPP workers.

The police said the PPP workers also manhandled the duty officer, Assistant Sub-inspector Qamar, at the police station.

They said a case (FIR 850/2008) against PPP workers was registered on the complaint of ASI Qamar.

The police said three PPP workers – Munir Ahmed, Shoaib and Naveed – were arrested in the case.