KARACHI: Five more police officials were suspended following the custodial death of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker Mohammad Wasim in Karachi's Aziz Bhatti police station yesterday.

Inspector General Sindh Police Ghulam Haider Jamali ordered the suspension of Head Constable Khair Muhammad, Constables Sikandar Ali and Asadullah, Inspector Malik Adil In-charge Special Investigation Team East and Assistant Sub-Inspector M Aslam of the Aziz Bhatti police station.

Earlier, senior police officials Deputy Superintendent of Police Nasir Lodhi and Station House Officer Aziz Bhatti Maqsood Raza had been suspended along with four police officers ─ Chaudhry Zafar, Mohammad Maqsood, Noman Javed and Zamir Hussain ─ against whom a first-information report had been filed.

A post-mortem examination report of Wasim's body yesterday revealed that the deceased suffered a head injury after being hit hard with a blunt object, and that the victim suffered asphyxiation which resulted in cardio-respiratory failure.

There were different opinions about the circumstances that led to the MQM worker’s detention and the place of his arrest.

The police said Wasim was taken into custody in Dalmia on Tuesday, while the MQM and relatives of the party activist said he along with his two brothers had been taken away two days ago from their shop in Baldia.

Late Tuesday night, his health condition deteriorated in the police custody and he was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors declared him dead on arrival, said the Superintendent Police.

Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency department, earlier said the Aziz Bhatti police had brought Wasim dead to the JPMC on Wednesday at 2:30am. Since it was a custodial death case, a post-mortem examination of the body was conducted by medico-legal officer Dr Aijaz Ahmed in the presence of the judicial magistrate concerned, she added.

Read more: Four policemen held after MQM worker’s custodial death

Markets and business centres in different parts of the city were abruptly shut on Wednesday afternoon following the MQM's appeal for mourning over the worker’s killing in police custody.

This was the first such appeal to transporters and traders by the MQM to keep their businesses closed since March when the Rangers raided the party’s headquarters, Nine Zero, and claimed to have arrested convicted criminals.

The city remained peaceful with no report of violence though the traders said the call from the party hit regular business in several districts except Karachi south district that largely remained unaffected.

Read more: Parts of city abruptly shut after MQM’s appeal for mourning