RAWALPINDI, Nov 12 An imam masjid committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol after leading Maghreb prayers in Bagh Sardaran area on Thursday.

Police said Mohammad Ashraf Ali, 30, was an imam in the Phoolonwali Masjid, along with his father. His colleagues rushed to his room on hearing the gunshot but found him dead.

Police removed his body to the District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.

While the motive was being investigated, one officer said Mr Ali was suffering from depression and might have decided to end his misery by ending his life.

Meanwhile, an expatriate was robbed of 3,000 Dirhams by two persons at Sir Syed Chowk while a house was ransacked by four unidentified gunmen and four vehicles were stolen from different parts of the city.

According to Airport police, Farad Ali, a resident of Mardan, was on his way home from Benazir Bhutto International Airport after coming from Dubai when two unidentified persons travelling in a car intercepted his cab and snatched the money.

Mr Ali told the police that the robbers introduced themselves as security officials and asked him for a search. They also took away his passport and managed to escape.

In the second incident, the gunmen forced into the house of Muhammad Saeed located in Westridge area and looted Rs5,000, gold ornaments and two cell phones from the inmates.

The gunmen escaped after committing the crime.

And, Agha Hussain complained to the Westridge police that two unidentified persons booked his taxi for Jilal Deen area but on reaching near their destination, they aimed their pistols at the driver and snatched the vehicle.

In vehicles' theft incidents, Muhammad Shakeel's pickup van was stolen by some unidentified thieves from Pirwadhai, Zakir Hussain's van from the R.A. Bazaar, while Abdul Basit's motorcycle was taken away by from Cantonment area.

Heroin seized

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANA) on Thursday raided a house in Sector I-10/1 and seized one-and-half kg heroin and arrested two men, including a Nigerian national.

A spokesman for the ANF said the raid was conducted after the force personnel got information that some people were dealing in narcotics in the house.

One of the arrested persons was identified as Ali Junaid, the Nigerian, and other one was Muhammad Wasim Shahid, he said.