DERA ISMAIL KHAN, May 31: A young pickpocket was gunned down here on Friday morning in the surgical ward of District Head Quarter Teaching Hospital, where he was admitted.

Muhammad Rafi s/o Gul Zaman was allegedly killed by his rivals, who are notorious for drug business, over a matrimonial dispute.

When all the patients and ward staff were asleep early in the morning, Jamshed alias Babi, one of the rivals, entered the ward and shot Rafi in the forehead and fled. The pickpocket died on the spot.

The three brothers of Babi had already managed a legal escape, getting themselves arrested by the Cantt Police under section 107. Heirs of Rafi have nominated Taous Khan, a reader to senior civil judge of Dera, as co-accused. None has been arrested so far. Rafi was admitted to the surgical ward after he had been attacked twice by his rivals. He had sustained bullet injuries in the assault.