KARACHI, Feb 16: A 34-year-old jobless man committed suicide in Orangi Town on Monday, witnesses and police said.

The police said that Kashif Ali was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a room of his house in Sector 7-E in the morning. They said that the man was mentally unstable and he hanged himself sometime in the small hours of Monday when the family members went to sleep. When the victim’s father, Muzaffar Ali, woke up for Fajr prayers he found him hanging in the room.

The police said that the victim placed a bucket on a chair, hanged himself from the ceiling fan, and jumped to choke himself to death slowly.

They quoted the victim’s family as saying that he was possessed by demons and supernatural beings. They said that he had been under spiritual treatment of an exorcist.

The police said that the victim, father of two, had been out of work since he left his job at a garment factory two months ago.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal proceedings. Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the clinical findings established that he had committed suicide. The body was later handed over to the family.

Newborn’s body found

The body of a newborn was found near Chakra Goth, a shantytown in Korangi No. 1.

Chhipa sources said the body of a baby boy, wrapped in a plastic bag, was found lying at a garbage den. They said that the body was later buried in Mewashah graveyard.

Lyari tense

Tension and panic gripped the mafia-infested Lyari on Monday afternoon after its neighbourhood reverberated with heavy gunfire.

The shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and the vehicular traffic disappeared from the streets as the rival gangsters exchanged gunfire in parts of Baghdadi, Kalri, Chakiwara and Kalakot.

Two people were found shot dead on Sunday in separate parts of the violence-hit Lyari.

Police said that they had intensified the patrolling in the affected areas. They said that the gangsters also opened fire on a police party near Baghdadi police station. However, the armed men fled after the police returned the fire.

Explosion

A small explosion took place in a garbage den at a desolate place in Saeedabad.

No loss of life or property was reported in the blast.

Police said the blast was not the result of any explosive device.

SP of Site Mohammed Ali Wasan told Dawn that the explosion took place after area people set the garbage on fire. He said that the officials of the bomb disposal squad reached the spot for inspection.

According to the bomb disposal squad, a small quantity of kerosene oil or some chemical might have caused the explosion.

36 vehicles taken away

Thirty six vehicles – five cars and 31 motorcycles – and 30 cellular phones were taken away by Monday evening in different parts of the city.

Officials at the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee told Dawn that one car was snatched at gunpoint in the limits of Malir Cantonment police station, and four others were stolen in the jurisdictions of Mochkoh, Bin Qasim, Aziz Bhatti and Shershah police stations.

They said that four motorcycles were snatched at gunpoint within Defence, Model Colony, Khoprapar and Garden police limits. Twenty seven motorcycles were stolen in the police jurisdictions of Saeedabad, Defence, Jamshed Quarters, Brigade, Ferozeabad, Zaman Town, Quaidabad, Sharifabad, Rizvia Society, Baghdadi, Preedy, Garden, Kharadar, Sharea Faisal, Pak Colony and Site.

The officials said that 14 cellular phones were snatched at gunpoint within the limits of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Saddar, Clifton, Jamshed Quarters, Korangi, Liaquatabad, Lyari, Malir City, North Nazimabad and Site.

Sixteen mobile phones were stolen in the police precincts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Jamshed Quarters, Orangi Town, Balida Town, Malir, North Nazimabad and Saddar.

They said that 11 cars, 38 motorcycles and 46 cellular phones were taken away on Sunday in different parts of the city. Of them, the officials said, three cars, seven bikes and 20 cellular phones were snatched at gunpoint.