ISLAMABAD, July 2: The body of Kafila Siddiqui will be exhumed on Wednesday for another postmortem in order to ascertain the actual cause of her death, sources told Dawn here on Monday.
Ms Siddiqui died under mysterious circumstances on June 9 at a house in G-11/3, which she shared with former state minister of communications Mohammad Shahid Jamil Qureshi. Brothers of the deceased, Mustafa Qayyum and Mujtaba Qayyum, who arrived in Islamabad the same day, took her body to Karachi where she was buried in Mohammad Shah graveyard in North Karachi on June 10.
The sources said Ms Siddiqui’s body would be exhumed on the orders of the Sindh home department, which had constituted a six- member medical board, comprising doctors, police officials and family members of the deceased.
The medical board will conduct another autopsy on Ms Siddiqui’s body to ascertain the actual cause and time of her death, they added.
The sources said Assistant Superintendent of Police Shalimar Muqadas Hayder and investigation officer sub-inspector Mansha Hussain would leave for Karachi on Tuesday and take part in the process of exhuming the body and carrying out the second autopsy, likely to be held at Jinnah Post Medical Centre, Karachi.
During the first autopsy, which was conducted in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), blood, urine and hair samples were not taken, which are main sources of detecting poison, sources as well as experts said.
Likewise, x-rays of the body were not conducted during the first autopsy and time of death was not mentioned in the report.
The early autopsy failed to establish the cause of death, while the chemical examiner’s report was also negative, regarding detection of poison or alcohol.
It may be mentioned here that the family members of the deceased had submitted an application to the office of the deputy commissioner of Islamabad on June 20, seeking another autopsy.
After completion of the formalities, the application was forwarded to the Chief Commissioner’s Office, from where it was sent to the Sindh Government on June 21.
