KARACHI, March 14: A local leader of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Mullah Ashraf, was shot dead by unknown persons in Liaquatabad on Sunday. Mullah Ashraf's killers were riding on motorcycles and managed to escape from the crime scene soon after the incident.

Party sources said that Mullah Ashraf, a member of the Liaquatabad sector committee, was rushed to the Aga Khan Hospital. He is reported to have died while being provided treatment in the hospital.

The Liaquatabad police, while confirming the incident, refrained from giving details about the incident. In a similar incident, Mirza Jameel, 40, was shot dead on Sunday evening by unidentified persons in Gulshan town.

The deceased was the owner of a marriage bureau situated in Royal Apartments near Nipa. Police officials said evidence suggested that the deceased was dragged before being shot. They said that a woman, who had described her to be the deceased's secretary, was present in the apartment at the time of the occurrence of the crime and was being interrogated in this regard.

Preliminary investigations showed that the killing was motivated by some enmity, officials said. Police, they said, had also found some objectionable material from the apartment. The deceased's body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for an autopsy examination.

SUICIDE: Two women committed suicide in separate incidents in the city on Sunday. Police said that Shazia, 30, ended her life by ingesting some poisonous substance in New Karachi's industrial area. Police quoted the victim's family as saying that Shazia had quarrelled with her mother-in-law over some domestic issue before consuming the poisonous substance.