RAWALPINDI: The decomposed body of a 60-year-old journalist was recovered from his car abandoned in the parking lot of Holy Family Hospital (HFH) on Tuesday.

Police said the silver car had been parked on the hospital premises for several days but no one from the security staff and others noticed that a man was lying on its backseat.

The body was spotted after some passersby felt stinking smell coming out of the car and called the police.

The police, led by Station House Officer (SHO) New Town Qaiser Nadeem, recovered the body and identified it as that of Shafaat Ali Sheikh.

According to the preliminary investigation, the deceased used to sleep in the car after parking it on the premises of the hospital and took meals from nearby hotels.

The police said sleeping pills and injections were recovered from the car.

The body, which was four to five days old, was shifted to hospital for a postmortem.

A daughter of the deceased told the police that his father was a heart patient, a drug addict and used relaxants for several years. She said she had contacted him on telephone about five days ago.

Police said the man was often seen on the premises of the hospital and staying in the car as he didn’t go home.

The deceased had been associated with different Urdu newspapers in Islamabad and was currently working for one of them.

SHO Nadeem said the deceased used to sleep in the car for over a year and had a pillow, blanket and shaving kits with him.

In the past, he used to sleep in the car after parking it in Saddar opposite the old GTS bus stand. He said the deceased had been using drugs for 10 years.

“The cause of the death seems to be a heart attack and excessive use of drugs.”

On the other hand, the police are questioning the security guards of the hospital besides checking CCTV cameras to establish the time when the car was parked on the premises.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2019