KARACHI: Police on Saturday said that they were treating the death of a teenage girl with gunshot wounds in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Friday as a murder case as preliminary evidence contradicted the family’s claims of suicide.

They termed it a case of killing in the name of so-called honour.

Aziz Bhatti SHO Adeel Afzal said that a murder case was registered on behalf of the state against the family of 15-year-old Samina Khan and an uncle of the victim was taken into custody since he owned the licensed pistol with which she was shot.

On Friday, the girl was found shot dead at her home in Block 6 and her family had claimed that she committed suicide by shooting herself.

The area SHO said that the family had taken her initially to the Liaquat National Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Later, the body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to fulfil legal formalities.

The family told authorities that she was standing on the roof of her house when a stray bullet killed her.

JPMC’s additional police surgeon Summaiya Syed said: “The body of 15-year-old girl was brought to the JPMC with alleged history of gunshot injury as a result of aerial firing. She was examined and was found to have a close contact wound of entry on anterior chest and exit wound on back.”

A source at the JPMC said: “The firearm entry wound findings were inconsistent with suicide or distant shot.”

The SHO said the family claimed that she committed suicide but they did not divulge any reason for it. The police had certain doubts since the bullet wound on the chest was unusual in suicide cases.

The family originally hailed from Quetta.

Lawmaker’s guard shoots delivery man

A food delivery rider was shot at and wounded in Defence Housing Authority allegedly by a security guard of an MPA belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Saturday.

The Darakshan police in a statement said that Foodpanda rider Mohammed Nadeem, 30, was shot and injured by a security guard at Seaview Apartments.

The injured was shifted to the JPMC for treatment where doctors said the man was shot in the leg.

A police officer, who wished not to be named, said that a son of MPA Khawaja Izharul Hasan of the MQM-P had ordered the food and when the delivery man arrived at his home he rang the bell twice, which apparently infuriated the politician’s guard. After an exchange of hot words, the guard fired at him.

The officer said that the politician was trying to ‘dissociate’ himself from the episode and initially told the police that the said person was not his guard but a party worker.

The police were investigating the case.

Man wounded upon resistance

A young man, identified as Sajid Yaseen, was shot at and wounded by armed robbers when he put up resistance in the outskirts of the city on Saturday.

In Orangi Town, armed men wounded Shafi Arzu, 20, and fled. Police said the motive could not be ascertained immediately.

In Lyari, police rounded up 20 suspects and claimed to have recovered opium, crystal meth, etc from them.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2021