KARACHI A 45-year-old man was shot dead on Monday at a desolate place in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, witnesses and police said.

They said that the victim, Aftab Ahmed Pharero, hailing from Naushehro Feroze, was the husband of a Sindhi folk singer, Sanam Marvi. They were living separately after estrangement.

The Sharea Faisal police said that the bullet-riddled body of the victim, who had landholding at his hometown, was found at around 4.45pm at an isolated place behind the Overseas Bungalows in Block 16-A.

Sources at the medico-legal section of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the body was shifted for a post-mortem examination, told Dawn that the victim was hit by six bullets in his upper torso and head.

They said that the victim's wounds suggested that he was shot from a very close range as all the six bullets went through his body.

The police said that they secured six spent bullet casings of a pistol from the crime-scene.

They said that a case (FIR 556/2009) was registered against unidentified culprits under Sections 302 (pre-meditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim's maternal cousin, Javed Khadim.

The complainant told Dawn that Marvi was the second wife of the victim, who had his first wife and six children at his village, Ali Mohammed Pharero. He said that Mr Pharero had married Marvi some three years ago, but the couple were living separately after estrangement for the past two years. 'There was a dispute between the couple, but I don't know the reason that caused the estrangement between them,' he added.

He said that the victim was a close friend of former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

He said that Mr Pharero had left his village for Hyderabad two days ago and he arrived in Karachi on Monday morning.

An area supervisory police officer (SPO), DSP Shafi Rind, told Dawn that the victim was believed to have been brought in a car by the culprits, who got him down at the spot and pumped bullets into his head and upper torso.

'The incident seems to be motivated by a personal enmity,' he added.