KARACHI: Four picnickers drowned at Hawkesbay early on Sunday morning, officials and rescue workers said.

Mauripur SHO Mohammed Iqbal told Dawn that a group of friends and relatives had gone on picnic at the beach at around 6am. They were swimming in the sea when a strong way swept them away.

The deceased were identified as Danish Azam, 25, Syed Moin, 17, Syed Mishal Minhaj, 17, and Zubair Majeed, 16.

The SHO said that the police were informed about the incident at around 7am.

A spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, whose ambulances brought the bodies to the hospital, said that the deceased were relatives and belonged to the Buffer Zone area of North Nazimabad and Orangi Town.

Rescue teams retrieved the bodies and took them to the Civil Hospital Karachi from where their relatives took them away without allowing doctors to fulfil legal formalities, said additional police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi. He said the bodies were brought to the CHK between 9am and 12 noon indicating that they were recovered at different times from the sea.

Scavenger shot dead

A teenage Afghan scavenger was shot dead in Azizabad on Sunday over some trivial issue. Noor Agha, 15, was gunned down allegedly by Ayaz Malik Jeewa, said Azizabad SHO Jamal Leghari.

The officer said that the victim was an Afghan scavenger, who along with his brother Umer and others, all residents of Machhar Colony of Sohrab Goth, collected garbage from different localities in Karimabad.

Noor Agha and his companion Naimat washed stairs of the flat owned by Ayaz Malik and demanded Rs25 for the work. However, an argument took place between them over the issue of payment during which the suspect took out his pistol and shot the teenager and fled.

The suspect allegedly locked the door of his flat and managed to escape leaving behind Noor Agha bleeding on the doorstep of his flat. The wounded boy was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

The Azizabad police registered the murder case against the suspect on the complaint of the victim’s brother, Umer.

Man dies mysteriously

A young man died under mysterious circumstances on Sunday in Mehmoodabad, police and hospital officials said.

Mehmoodabad SHO Anwar Ali Shaikh said that Shahlam Pervez Masih, 24, a resident of the Cantonment Station area was invited by his friends to a place in Mehmoodabad where he was found dead on Sunday morning under mysterious circumstances.

The body was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where doctors said a cause of death could be established after a chemical examination.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017