Police suspected firing into the air in the area was the most probable cause of Shumaila’s death, but they could not arrive at a conclusion till late in the night. They did not register an FIR against the killing.

“A single bullet was found in her head, which proved fatal and it seems she died on the spot,” said an official at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the victim’s body was brought for autopsy.

The area police said most parts of Lyari remained tense throughout the day as activists of a political party burnt tyres on roads and fired shots in the air to protest against the midnight bomb attacks on Benazir Bhutto’s welcome convoy on Oct 18.

However, he said, it had not yet been determined that such an episode was behind the killing of Shumaila.