KARACHI, Jan 19: A 60-year-old prayer leader was shot dead early Saturday morning near his house in Korangi, police and witnesses said.

They added that Haji Ghulam Hussain, son of Mohammad Bukhsh, was returning home after offering Fajr prayers at a nearby mosque when he was gunned down.

The police said he was a resident of Sector 33-E, Korangi 1 ½ and a local chief of the Tableeghi Jamaat.

The police quoted his family as saying that he had left for Tahajjud prayers in the early hours of Saturday. He was targeted by two armed men riding a motorcycle near the mosque as he was returning home, the police said.

The victim was fatally wounded in the attack and died before he could be shifted to hospital.

Later, the police shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where medico-legal sources told Dawn that the victim received four bullets in his upper torso from a very close range as all the bullets went through his body.

The police found four spent bullet casings at the crime-scene and said that the attackers had used 9mm pistol in the murder.

They said that the elderly victim ran a provision shop in the locality.

The police said no case had been lodged as the victim’s family was still engaged in the funeral.

Young man kills self

A 30-year-old man shot himself dead in his house in Gulshan-i-Hadeed, police said.

Steel Town police said that Saleem Ahmad Kanasro, son of Mushtaq Ahmad Kanasro, was an ex-employee of the Karachi Electric  Supply Company.

Sub-Inspector Baqar Hussain told Dawn that the man, who got married two years ago, left a suicide note in his diary that was found lying beside the body. He had been sacked from the KESC and had since been jobless, the police said, suspecting that he, driven to despair, killed himself.

The police said that the victim’s wife was a teacher at a nearby private school and her husband was alone in the house when he committed suicide with his pistol.

They said that the woman had left for school at her usual time and she found her husband dead in their house when she returned home at around 2pm.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal proceedings and later handed over to the victim’s family.

The couple hailed from Larkana, the police said.

Hand grenade hurled at mill

Panic gripped parts of Ittehad Town, Baldia Town, after a hand grenade was hurled at a silk mill in the early hours of the morning.

The Mochko police said that no one was hurt and no damage was caused to the mill in the explosion.

They said that the mill owners had earlier received an extortion demand of Rs500,000.

A case against unidentified culprits was later registered at the Mochko police station.

Two killed in accident

Two people were killed and four others injured in a collision between a truck and a pick-up near Swat Colony within the remit of the Mauripur police station.

The dead and injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi where the deceased were identified as Farman, 30, son of Haji Ashraf, and Asghar, 25, son of Gul Hasan.

The injured were identified as Khalid, Salim, Tariq and Rashid.