Dadu honour-killing victim's body exhumed but medical board doubts stoning claims

DADU: The body of an honour-killing victim was exhumed on Wednesday consequent to the local magistrate's orders but the medical board probing the case cast doubt on claims that the girl was stoned to death, citing visible injuries.

Addressing the media, the four-member medical board observed that the nine-year-old's head, nose, and jaw were fractured and her ribs broken but noted that wounds did not seem to indicate that she was stoned to death. There was, however, a wound on her head, possibly from blunt force trauma from something heavy, they added.

A DNA test would also confirm if the deceased girl was raped before death and whether the body is of the same girl or a different one, the board said.

Read more: Medical board to report after exhumation of body, post-mortem

The medical board comprises the medical superintendent of Hyderabad, two professors — including one of pathology — from Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro, and the Hyderabad police surgeon.

The director-general of the Sindh Health Services, Dr Masood Ahmed Solangi, in a notification had announced the medical board was ordered to release its findings in a report three days from the exhumation and the subsequent post-mortem.

Separately, Babrik Rind, a feudal lord and the son of Prime Minister Imran Khan's special assistant, Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind, refuted allegations on social media, saying he was in Balochistan the day the girl died.

Also read: Honour-killing victim's father claims death was accident

On Monday, local judicial magistrate Agha Imran Pathan had given a go-ahead to exhume the body after the senior superintendent of police (SSP) for Dadu, Farrukh Raza, had submitted a request for the same a day prior.

The same day, police included the deceased girl's mother into their investigation. On the other hand, the girl's father — who was arrested alongside two others — refuted the honour-killing claim, saying his daughter was killed in an accident when a mountain rock fell on her.

The three arrestees include the nine-year-old's father, Ali Bakhsh, Moulvi Mumtaz Laghari, and a facilitator of her funeral and burial. Two others have been named in the first information report (FIR) filed over the case.

The girl was allegedly stoned to death over the so-called honour in Wahi Pandhi on November 21.