KARACHI: A property dealer was found shot dead at his office in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Saturday, police said.

Mohammad Ali, 40, was found dead inside the estate agency office situated in Block-5, said Gulshan-i-Iqbal SHO Farooq Ahmed Sanjrani.

The police suspected that he committed suicide as he received a single bullet fired from his licensed pistol, the SHO said, adding that he was alone at his office at the time of the shooting.

The police quoted his brother as saying that he had been suffering from depression for the past two days.

He explained that Ali had borrowed Rs1 million from someone and was not in a position to repay the debt, which might have compelled him to kill himself. However, the SHO added, the police were investigating the case.

Girl dies as wall collapses

A five-year-old girl died and her two siblings sustained injuries when the wall of their house in Quaidabad collapsed on Saturday, according to police.

They added that the wall of the old house in Street 7 of New Muzaffarabad Colony fell on Shaherbano, her eight-year-old brother Bakhtiar and 14-year-old sister Shamshad.

The youngest of them died while her siblings were injured. Area residents called rescue workers who came and retrieved the body and the two injured minors from under the rubble. The deceased and the injured victims were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The police officer said the wall collapsed because it was a very old house.

Hostage recovered, kidnapper held

A five-year-old boy, who had been kidnapped from Korangi Industrial Area two days back, was recovered safely in a joint operation carried out by the police and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) on Saturday.

Sheeraz was kidnapped on Friday at around 10am outside his home in Mehran Town of Korangi, police said, adding that the incident was reported to them by his mother Bibi Rehmat.

On Saturday, a joint team of the Korangi police and the CPLC conducted a targeted raid in Khadim Goth near Sohrab Goth and arrested the suspected kidnapper, Azhar Khan, 30, according to Landhi SP Rao Arif Aslam.

During the operation, the officials recovered the child safely who was later handed over to his mother.

However, initial investigation indicated that it was not a case of kidnapping for ransom but appeared to be the outcome of some ‘personal dispute’, SP Aslam said.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2017