KARACHI, Aug 4: A 30-year-old Ukrainian field worker of the Tabbani Group at a project of the Pakistan Steel Mills died of a stab wound to the abdomen in mysterious circumstances on Sunday.

The Steel Town police said the victim, identified as Tayllau Yori, was taken to the Liaquat National Hospital around 6pm by the contracting firm’s project director, also a Ukrainian national.

The victim, who was living in apartment No 6 of the D-2 block of the Steet Mills Township, died from the wound at the hospital around 11pm and his project director obtained from the LNH a certificate of an accidental death caused by a stab wound.

ASI Haji Habib, the inquest officer, told Dawn that the medico-legal officer at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre endorsed the cause of death as accident.

He said he was told through an interpreter that the victim was cutting vegetables in the kitchen when he slipped with the knife that pierced his abdomen.

The officer said the project director, the victim’s compatriot, did not press for any legal proceedings as they said the victim had died accidentally. “He gave us an undertaking in black and white that he did not want any legal action,” he added.

The investigation officer said the probe into the matter was still in progress. “We have yet to inspect the spot of the incident and the knife that reportedly killed the victim,” he added.

He said he had recorded the statements of two Ukrainian co-workers who claimed to have seen the wounded man in his kitchen.

The spokesman for the PSM, Mohammed Sharif Kayani, told Dawn that the victim was an employee of a contracting firm involved in the repairs of one of the furnaces at the mills. “We have just rented out some blocks to the contractor,” he added.

Meanwhile, sources said the victim was fatally wounded in a quarrel with his compatriots. They said the fatally wounded man was first taken to the PSM’s 110-bed hospital and later he was moved to the LNH.

The sources said the victim died when he was being operated upon.

They said the project director had sealed the victim’s apartment and a police team headed by the area SP was not even allowed to visit the place of the incident.

The sources said the senior police officer was told that the victim’s apartment would be opened only after permission of the Ukrainian mission.

They said the police investigators were in a fix as they had been told not to lay their hands on any foreigner in this connection. The sources said that a thorough investigation was required to ascertain whether the victim died accidentally or he was murdered.