KARACHI, Oct 2: A team of police officials came under fire on Sunday evening and took refuge in a mosque and nearby houses after they attempted to enter a seminary in the Kati Pahari area on a tip-off about an arms cache there, officials said.

SSP West Asif Ajaz told Dawn said that neither any arrest nor any recovery was made during the raid.

The police had earlier surrounded and entered Tayyaba mosque and the seminary attached to it in Muslimabad No 2 of Orangi Town.

However, they faced a violent reaction from residents who opened fire on them. A police van was damaged in the firing while policemen ran for shelter.

The police party, headed by Pirabad SHO Pervaiz Akhtar, became trapped in the mosque.

SSP West Asif Ajaz Shaikh rejected the reports aired by some private TV channels that police had raided the place acting on the information that Taliban Commander Mullah Akber was hiding in the mosque. The SSP said the SHO carried out the raid acting on the tip-off that arms and ammunition were stored in the mosque.

However, SHO Akhtar told the media that he raided the place after he had received information about the presence of the Saturday grenade attack suspects inside the mosque.

Body found

The decomposed body of an unidentified man was found near New Sabzi Mandi off Superhighway on Sunday morning.

Police said that the body was found from a desolated area near Dost Mohammad Road.

They said that the body was lain there for about 15 days and there was no gunshot wound on the body.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities, from where it was moved to the Edhi morgue for a want of identification.