KARACHI: Three men were found brutally murdered next to a Clifton park on Thursday, police and hospital officials said.

They added that the three bodies were found with injury marks near the Beach View Park. They were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to fulfil legal formalities.

They sustained wounds on their head caused by a hard and blunt weapon, said Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the JPMC.

A post-mortem examination was carried out at around 2.30pm.

Police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi said that they were killed around 14 to 15 hours before their arrival at the hospital’s mortuary.

Couple dies from gas inhalation, 11 others fall unconscious

Two of the victims were identified through the CNICs found in their pockets as Hamsheer Afzal, 52, and Ali Hasan, 24, while the third one aged around 40 years remained unidentified.

Clifton SHO Pir Shabbir Haider said that one of the victims polished boats to earn a living and the other worked as a masseur in the Clifton area and used to sleep on benches in the park near the beach.

It appeared that they were asleep on the benches near the park when unknown suspects attacked them, smashing their heads with heavy stones.

The officer said that Hamsheer originally belonged to Mardan while Ali Hassan was a resident of Faisalabad.

South SSP Sheeraz Nazeer said that the police had approached relatives of the two identified victims in their respective areas and they had told the police that they had no enmity with anyone.

It seemed that they had slept in the broken and dilapidated park to escape the rain.

“Investigation is still at a preliminary stage, but the police suspected that someone suffering from psychological problems might have killed them,” said the SSP.

The investigators have found the two heavy stones used in the murders at the crime scene.

There was no CCTV coverage of the area where the bodies were found as it was covered by trees. The police were trying to obtain CCTV footage from adjoining localities to ascertain the identity and motive of the killer(s), added the senior officer.

Meanwhile, South DIG Sharjeel Kharal took notice of the incident and sought a detailed report from the South SSP, said a spokesperson.

Couple dies from gas inhalation

As several areas of the metropolis experienced a major power breakdown amid the third spell of monsoon, forcing residents to use power generators, a couple died from gas inhalation in a Korangi area and 11 members of a family fell unconscious because of identical causes in Surjani Town on Thursday, officials said.

They added that the couple had run the generator inside their home in Mehran Town of Korangi late on Wednesday night where they were found dead on Thursday.

The bodies were shifted to the JPMC to fulfil legal formalities. “The death was caused by inhalation of gas from a generator,” said Dr Seemin Jamali of the JPMC. The dead were identified as Shaukat Abbas, 28, and his wife, Naila Bibi, 21.

In the other incident in Surjani Town, 11 members of a family fell unconscious.

Police said there was a henna ceremony in Khuda Ki Basti late on Wednesday night after which the relatives slept while the generator was running.

As a result, a couple and their seven sons and daughters and two others fell unconscious. They were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital from where they were discharged after first aid, said additional police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi.

They were identified as Waseem, 50, his wife Sakina, 40, their children Sadiq, 25, Bushra, 24, Iqra, 22, Bisma, 18, Muskan, 11, Kunzila, 8, Owais, 10, and their two other relatives Shahbaz Ali, 17, and Dilawar Tahir, 17.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2019