A young woman committed suicide in Karachi's Punjab Colony area on Thursday after her parents allegedly did not allow her to marry the man of her choice and instead "forced" her into an engagement with somebody else, police said.

The 22-year-old woman was found hanging from the ceiling inside her home in Punjab Colony, Frere police said. The body was shifted to the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre to fulfil legal formalities.

Frere Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammed Ibrahim said the woman had developed a friendship with a youth when the family lived in Machar Colony; her parents, however, did not approve of the relationship.

They recently moved to Punjab Colony, after which the parents snatched the woman's cell phone from her and placed restrictions on her movement.

The father also had her engaged to a relative against her wishes recently.

Late on Wednesday night, when he returned home from the fishery, he heard his daughter reciting the Holy Quran with the room's door locked from inside. Also, although the woman usually used to prepare tea for her father at 6am, she did not get up to do so today, police told Dawn.

At around 11 in the morning, the mother broke the door and found her daughter hanging from the ceiling fan. She allegedly committed suicide using her dupatta.

The SHO revealed that the woman had acquired another cell phone a few days ago which was seized by the police after her death. Call data from the phone showed that she had remained in touch with her boyfriend from Machar Colony between 3pm and 8pm on Wednesday.