KARACHI: A 60-year-old car driver was shot dead in the Sherpao Colony area of Landhi on Wednesday morning over some personal enmity, Quaidabad police said.

They added that as Mohammed Taj came out of his home, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on him and fled.

He sustained bullet wounds and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. An area police officer said that the murder appeared to be an outcome of some family issue.

The victim worked as a driver at a bungalow in Defence Housing Authority.

The police said that they were waiting for the family to register a first information report (FIR) of the incident to launch an investigation to ascertain the identity of the killers.

Man found dead

A 30-year-old man was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the Malir City area on Wednesday evening.

Police and hospital officials said the man, identified as Iqbal Jalal, was found dead on a roadside in the Gharibabad area. The body was shifted to the JPMC to ascertain the possible cause of death.

The Edhi Foundation, whose ambulance shifted the body to the hospital, said there were injury marks on his head apparently caused by a hard and blunt object.

However, Malir City SHO Waqar Faridi claimed that the man might have died owing to a drug overdose.

The officer claimed that the deceased was a drug addict. He was a resident of Memon Goth. The family had reportedly expelled him from home around eight months ago because of his addiction problem.

Hashish seized

The Docks police claimed on Wednesday to have seized a huge quantity of charas and apprehended a suspect.

Acting on a tip-off, the police conducted a raid in Mohammadi Colony, better known as Machhar Colony, along the Lyari railway station, and seized a truck, containing one maund of charas, which was smuggled from Peshawar, said City SSP Muqaddas Haider.

A taxi driver who had come to receive the drugs was arrested while the truck driver escaped from the crime scene.

The smuggler of charas had used the words “take carpet” when he made phone contact with the taxi driver. The truck driver was standing there to deliver the hashish when the police party acted.

Burglar held

The Napier police claimed on Wednesday that they had arrested a member of a gang of thieves, active in breaking open locks of shops/markets to steal goods.

The police with the help of CCTV footage apprehended the suspect named Amir Mohammed at Khyber Chowk of Timber Market.

They said the held suspect was an Afghan pretending to be a scavenger but actually was involved in breaking open locks of shops to steal valuables.

The police described him as a “member of an Afghan gang of thieves” who had looted several shops in Machhar Colony, Sohrab Goth etc.

The held suspect with other accomplices had broken the lock of a godown in Machhar Colony on Feb 2 and taken away goods.

The police had registered an FIR on a complaint of the godown owner, Syed Zubair Ali, and with the help of the CCTV footage obtained from the area, arrested the suspect.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2020