LAHORE: The young girl who was found unconscious with a head injury on Main Boulevard, Gulberg, late on Monday, was discharged from Jinnah Hospital after treatment and medico-legal examination on Tuesday.

Gulberg police have registered a case under Section 376 (punishment of rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unidentified people on the complaint of girl’s mother Zohra Bibi.

Rescue 1122 ambulance staff, responding to an emergency call about a ‘road accident’ near a shopping mall, found the girl lying unconscious around 10pm on Monday with a head injury. They shifted her to Jinnah Hospital.

A doctor at the hospital told Dawn the 18-yar-old girl, said to be a resident of Begum Kot, Shahdara, was initially treated at the emergency ward. Later, she was medically examined by the doctors.

The girl was stable and was being treated for head injury, he added.

In the first information report, girl’s mother Zohra Bibi of Begum Kot said that she ‘suspected’ her daughter was sexually assaulted.

Zohra and her other daughter Kalsoom, when contacted by Dawn at the hospital, refused to comment on the episode and avoided the media.

A police investigator told this reporter that the girl was a dancer and had visited Dubai for performances. He said police had seized the car of a man who arranged troupes for Dubai and was among contacts in the girl’s mobile phone.

He said though a rape case had been registered by Gulberg police against unknown people, the investigation so far revealed that she fell from stairs of a building.

In a late night development, the girl and her mother were brought to Gulberg police station for investigation in a rickshaw, apparently to avoid the media.

Gulberg police investigation in-charge Mian Aslam was not taking phone calls.

Meanwhile, sources said the hospital administration sealed the medico-legal report of the girl.

DIES: A 32-year-old woman, who allegedly suffered burns while working with a stove at her house in Pakki Thathi, Samanabad, on March 4, died at Mayo Hospital on Tuesday.

Millat Park SHO Ghulam Bari said Samina, a mother of two, stated thrice before the police that she caught fire accidentally while cooking food.

He said the woman’s husband, who was asleep at the time of the incident, brought her to the hospital.

The SHO said the body would be handed over to the victim’s parents without post-mortem examination.

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