KARACHI, May 6: A 52-year-old traffic police officer on Tuesday took his life with a gunshot to the head in his flat near Jubilee Market, family and police said.

Family sources said Inspector Mohammed Kabeer had been suffering for the past three years from diabetes that led to the amputation of three of his right toes.

The police said the traffic police officer, who had two wives and three grownup children, was found dead in his room at his 3rd floor flat in Quresh Manzil in the Nabi Bux police area.

They said the victim, posted at a traffic checkpoint near Mazar-i-Quaid in the Jamshed Town traffic section, used his official revolver to kill himself.

The body was shifted to Civil Hospital, where medico-legal sources said the man committed suicide by shooting himself to the head as the bullet pierced his skull. Karim Bux, brother of the victim’s first wife, told Dawn that his brother-in-law was immensely depressed due to his ailment that caused him to end his life.

He said Kabeer had a 26-year-old married son, Ali Raza, and a 21-year-old daughter, Sonia, from his first wife. “My sister and niece live in Hyderabad while my brother-in-law lived here with his second wife and their son, Asif, 18,” he added.

Asif’s maternal cousin, Shahzad, told Dawn that his uncle had been greatly depressed since he last visited the hospital a couple of days ago. “Doctors told him that his foot would be amputated shortly and this put him under immense stress,” he added.