RAWALPINDI: The body of a 22-year-old nomad was found on Saturday in a gunny sack and bearing marks of trauma, within the limits of the Airport police station.

Police said the body of a young woman was found along a seasonal nullah in a private housing society and was taken to the Distrist Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The deceased has been identified as Samina Bibi from Rehmatabad.

According to the police, the woman went missing on Oct 25, and a report has been registered in the Airport police’s daily crime register based on a complaint lodged by her parents. A murder case has also been registered against unidentified individuals, and an investigation is ongoing.

Last Saturday, the body of a man was found in a carpet in Wakeel Colony while the body of a woman was found in a sack in Rahimabad. Police have not yet identified the killers in either incident.

City Police Officer (CPO) Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi has formed a committee to find the killers in all three incidents, which were reported in different parts of Airport police area. The committee will be supervised by the Potohar Division superintendent of police (SP) and will include Airport Circle Deputy Superintendent of Police Faisal Salim and Airport police Station House Officer Ahsan Kiyani.

A senior police official said the deceased was suffocated by a pair of men’s trousers wrapped around her neck. He said Rescue 1122 had shifted the body to the DHQ Hospital for an autopsy and the police would get more information after they have received the medical examination report.

Potohar Division SP Syed Ali confirmed that the body of a 22-year-old woman was found in the Airport police area. He said the deceased had been identified as Samina Bibi, who went missing from home on Oct 25.

He said the police were working hard to resolve the murders of a man and woman whose bodies were found in Wakeel Colony andRahimabad.

He said that the police are also trying hard to solve the murder cases of a male and female whose dead bodies were found from Rehmatabad and Wakeel Colony last week.

SP Ali also said that the woman whose body was found last Saturday had been sexually assaulted before she was killed.

“We have dispatched the fingerprints of the two bodies to the Nadra headquarters in Islamabad to identify them,” he added.

Experts from the Punjab Forensic Laboratory also collected evidence from the crime scenes.

A police official on duty at the Airport police station said Amanat, Samina’s brother, told the police that she used to sell pencils andbeg on the streets with their mother.

The police official said the body was partially decomposed, and bore evidence of physical trauma. “It would be premature to issue any statement as to whether she was sexually assaulted until the doctors issue her medico-legal report,” he said.

The investigating officer said the family of the deceased had claimed that she visited the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology for medical treatment, which would be investigated and CCTV footage from the hospital would be obtained to see if she was accompanied by anyone during her visit to the hospital.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2017