Looks like neither stoning nor fall killed her, says doctor probing Dadu honour-killing

DADU: One of the doctors probing a nine-year-old girl's alleged honour-killing in Wahi Pandhi said Friday it looked like neither was her death caused by stoning nor a fall from a mountain killed her.

Speaking to Geo News, Professor Dr Waheed Ali Nahyoon of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) said there were no marks or evidence that indicated that the minor girl was stoned to death nor was there proof that she had fallen to her death.

Dr Nahyoon, who is part of the team set up by Sindh Health Services Director-General Dr Masood Ahmed Solangi to probe the alleged honour-killing and conduct a post-mortem, said the investigation was for now being treated as an accident only.

Read more: Body exhumed but medical board doubts stoning claims

The body also did not bear any marks of torture, he added, noting that her death seemed to have been caused by something heavy falling on her.

Explaining the injuries, Dr Nahyoon said the bones on the lower half of the nine-year-old's face and skull, as well as four of her ribs, were broken.

Back on Wednesday, the medical board probing the case had cast doubt on claims that the girl was stoned to death, citing visible injuries.

Addressing the media, the four-member board had observed that the nine-year-old's head, nose, and jaw were fractured and her ribs broken but 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.

Also read: Board to report after exhumation of body, post-mortem

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.

The medical board comprises the medical superintendent of Hyderabad, two professors — including one of pathology — from LUMHS in Jamshoro, and the Hyderabad police surgeon.

Earlier this week, 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.

Read more: Dadu honour-killing victim's father claims death was accident

Five individuals in total have been named in the first information report (FIR) filed over the case. Of those, three have been arrested; they include the girl's father, Ali Bakhsh, Moulvi Mumtaz Laghari, and a facilitator of her funeral and burial.

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