PESHAWAR, March 27: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday took a suo moto notice of the mysterious killing of a woman inside a major hospital of the provincial capital and ordered police to trace killers within a week.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah directed administration of Lady Reading Hospital to submit today (Thursday) the report of an inquiry conducted after the body of the woman was recovered from the hospital.It also order production of the video footage of the close circuit cameras installed in the relevant portion of the hospital.

The bench took exception to deputing a junior police officer for investigating the case and ordered that the superintendent of police (investigation) head the investigation team.

It also directed the Peshawar district and sessions judge to examine whether autopsy of the woman was conducted properly keeping in view all aspects of the case and observed that if it was deficient, the district judge should conduct exhumation of the body and her further medical examination.

The bench issued directions for the collection of samples from the stomach of the deceased for laboratory test.

The body of the deceased, Noor Bibi, was found in the toilet of the emergency department at Lady Reading Hospital on March 25.

The initial investigation showed that she was married to a person in Paloosi area and four days before recovery of her body, she had left her husband’s house to go to the residence of her in-laws.

The body was carrying marks of violence and the killers had also tried to burn her face so that she could not be recognised. The investigation showed that she was strangulated and then hit by any blunt instrument.

The human rights directorate of the high court had taken notice of the issue and referred it to the Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan who summoned high-ups of the police and hospital.

Chief executive of the hospital Arshad Jawed, SSP (Operation) Imran Shahid and other officials appeared before the court and said they had been looking into the matter.

Mr Jawed said he had formed a high-level committee for probing the issue at hospital level and the inquiry would be completed on Wednesday.

The chief justice inquired from them how it was possible that in such a crowded hospital the victim was killed in a brutal manner and the body was dumped in a wash room. The bench expressed displeasure over the inclusion of only Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code in the FIR and directed that Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act along with relevant provisions of PPC be included in the FIR.

The chief justice observed what would be the level of trust in LRH when its administration instead of saving lives of people failed to protect a woman on the premises. The bench observed that if any such like incident happened in the hospital in future, action would be taken against the chief executive.