KARACHI, Dec 6: Two people, including a 40-year-old woman, were shot dead in separate parts of the city on Saturday, police and witnesses said.

They said that the woman, mother of seven, was found shot dead on Saturday near her house in Garden East.

The police said that the body, wrapped in a bedspread, was stuffed in a bale of hay that was spotted on Nishtar Road near a shrine at around 9am.

They said the victim, Shamim Ara, wife of Saib Khan, was a resident of flat B-105 at al-Aziz Apartments, and her body was found some 500 metres from her residence.

The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination. Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal department told Dawn that a single bullet shot to the victim’s head from a very close range went through the skull.

The police said that the victim’s husband was in Saudi Arabia and she was living here with her seven children, two daughters and five sons.

They said that the victim’s youngest child is a two-year-old daughter and the eldest is a 15-year-old boy.

The police said that the family did not know as to when the victim had left her apartment.

They quoted the victim’s eldest son as telling them that he had seen his mother at the apartment before he went to bed at around 8pm.

The police said that the victim’s family originally hailed from Afghanistan and they had settled in Karachi 40 years ago.

The police registered a case (268/2008) against unknown culprits under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s maternal uncle, Khan Mohammed.

Shot dead

A 30-year-old man was shot dead near Al-Hamra Marriage Hall in Tipu Sultan area.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where the victim was identified as Malik Mohammed Haroon, a Quran teacher and resident of Korangi.

The police said that the victim was killed at around 10am.

No further details were available, as the Tipu Sultan and Bahadurabad police stations were in dispute over jurisdiction.

Two suspects killed

Two suspected bandits were killed and their accomplice was injured by a head constable who was also critically wounded in a shootout in North Karachi.

The Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police said that three dacoits reached the Qaumi Tameer-i-Nau Bank at Sector 5-B3 at around 12.45pm and suddenly opened fire on a bank security guard and a head constable who were on guard outside the bank.

The police said that the head constable, Bashir Ahmed Channa, also returned fire despite being shot and wounded as the bank’s security guard ran into the bank.

They said that one of the dacoits, Iqbal, 25, was killed instantly and the two others were wounded, one of them fatally.

The SP of New Karachi, Dr Mohammed Farooq, told Dawn that the fatally wounded suspect, Ayaz, died on way to hospital.

He said that the gallant policeman received critical bullet wounds, one each to the chest, the abdomen and the left leg. “He is being operated upon,” he added.

He said that one of the suspects fled the scene even after having been shot and wounded, and he hid himself at a nearby mosque.

The SP said that the police surrounded the mosque and arrested the suspect who had received a bullet wound to the leg.

He said that three pistols were seized from the suspected bandits, who hailed from Khairpur.

53 vehicles, 59 cell phones robbed

As many as 53 vehicles – 10 automobiles and 43 motorbikes – and 59 cellular phones were taken away on Friday in different parts of the city.

Of them, three cars, seven bikes and 23 mobile phones were snatched at gunpoint.

By the evening on Saturday, one car, two motorcycles and eight mobile phones were snatched at gunpoint and five cars, 17 bikes and 12 cellular phones were stolen in different parts of the city.