DADU: Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind on Monday examined Sindh University’s Marvi hostel room where the body of Naila Rind — a final-year student of Sindhi department — was found hanging from the ceiling a day earlier.

“It seems to be a suicide case,” the DIG said after inspecting the room and quoting preliminary investigations based on circumstantial evidence, while talking to media.

During a briefing given to him by Jamshoro SSP retired Captain Tariq Wilayat, along with other senior police officials of the district, it was said that the deceased student had used two scarves, a chair and a bed to facilitate her suicide.

The victim’s family members and relatives, however, rejected the police claim about it being a suicide case and demanded a fair investigation into the incident.

Earlier, the Jamshoro police recorded the statements of eight persons about the incident. They included teachers, hostel employees and students. The SSP said that her mobile phone data was also being scrutinised and the deleted data was being retrieved to establish the exact cause behind the tragedy.

It was on Sunday evening when the Marvi hostel administration informed police about the body of Naila Rind, 21, daughter of Nizamuddin Rind, hanging from the ceiling in the hostel’s room No 36. Her family lives in Mastoi Mohallah of Qambar, situated in Qambar-Shahdadkot town.

SSP Wilayat along with a team rushed to the hostel soon after the incident and took the body into custody. The police also took possession of the two scarves allegedly used by the victim.

The police were told that upon receiving the information first, the SU Jamshoro registrar and Marvi hostel provost along with some other officials rushed to room No 36 and broke open its door and found the victim’s body hanging from the ceiling.

They got the post-mortem examination of the body performed at the Hyderabad Civil Hospital before handing it over to her father and other family members.

The SSP said that a special investigation into the incident was assigned to Kotri DSP Khalid Hussain and Jamshoro SHO Tahir Mughal. “Although it’s an apparent case of suicide, it must be investigated thoroughly to find answers to many questions about the incident,” he said.

Ms Rind’s father Nizamuddin Rind and brother Nisar Ahmed, speaking to the media on Monday, rejected the claim that she had committed suicide.

“She was a brilliant student and had been maintaining an excellent academic record which is evident from her clinching the first position recently. She had never shared with the family any complaint or trouble at the university or hostel, nor had she been found worried over any matter in the recent past,” they argued.

“She had visited us just a couple of days before the incident,” they said.

Marvi hostel provost Anila Soomro told the police that Ms Rind had returned to the hostel to submit her thesis after visiting her home a couple of days back. She was absolutely normal, said Ms Soomro, adding that she, as a matter of daily routine, went into her room on Sunday afternoon but her close friends told her [Ms Soomro] in the evening that Ms Rind did not come out of the room since then, which was unusual.

“Out of curiosity, I knocked at the door of her room but got no response,” said the provost. She said she and several other students repeatedly knocked at the door in the next hour but there was silence inside. “Then we peeped into the room from a window and saw her body hanging from the ceiling fan,” she said.

The incident sent a wave of shock and panic across the hostel and the SU Jamshoro campus.

Burial in Qambar

Naila Rind was buried in the Mastoi graveyard of her native town Qambar on Monday, our Larkana correspondent adds.

Her family members, including brother Nisar Rind, repeated the demand for an inquiry into her death, saying that no one could believe that a topper who had no worries whatsoever could take such an extreme action without any reason.

They claimed that the post-mortem examination was carried out in haste and in the absence of the heirs and any other relative.

Nisar Rind also pointed out that the toes of the body were touching the bed which negated the suicide theory. A chair could not rightly be even placed on the bed, so there was no logic in what was being claimed, he added.

Published in Dawn January 3rd, 2017