PESHAWAR, March 28: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday ordered exhumation of the body of a woman, found at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), for conducting its fresh autopsy after terming the postmortem report deficient on several counts.

A two-member bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah directed that samples should be collected from body of the deceased including her viscera and the same should be sent for examination to Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory.

The bench fixed April 10 for next hearing with the direction to the inspector general of Frontier Corps to provide to the investigation team video footage of the day of occurrence recorded by close circuit cameras installed at the rear side of Balahisar Fort adjacent to emergency section of LRH.

The bench directed Peshawar district and sessions judge to constitute a medical team for exhumation of the body and also depute a magistrate for supervising the process.

The bench observed that the doctor, who had examined the body, had ignored several important points. Most important of all it had not been mentioned whether the deceased was subjected to sexual abuse before her death, the bench observed.

PHC chief justice had taken suo moto notice of the mysterious killing of the woman, Noor Bibi, and had issued several directives on Wednesday.

The body was found on the second floor of the emergency department at LRH on March 25. The initial investigation showed that she was married to Aurangzeb, a resident of Paloosi area, and four days before recovery of her body she had left her husband’s home to go to the residence of her parents.

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 a blunt instrument.

LRH chief executive Dr Arshad Javed, head of forensic science department Dr Hakeem Afridi and other officials appeared before the court. Dr Javed submitted initial inquiry report, stating that the incident had not taken place inside a toilet as earlier reported but in fact it took place at a hall which had presently been renovated on the second floor of the said department.

The husband of the deceased said that she was married to him around four years ago. He added that he was a labourer and four days before the body was found his wife told him that she would go the residence of her parents. He added that she did not return and later they came to know that her body was found at the hospital.

The bench observed that although killing of a woman in such a brutal manner was a heinous offence yet more alarming thing was that such occurrence had taken place inside a hospital.

Meanwhile, the district and sessions judge, Shehbar Khan, constituted a three member team of forensic experts for exhumation of the body. The team includes head of department of forensic science department, Bacha Khan Medical College, Dr Fasihuz Zaman, head of forensic department Khyber Girls Medical College, Dr Anjum Zia, and senior lecturer of forensic department, Khyber Medical College, Dr Shahida Naveed.