RAWALPINDI: The death of a student of Government Postgraduate College for Girls, 6th Road, in her hostel room triggered protest on Friday morning.

Urooj Fatima, 20, a student of BS English third semester from Fatehjang, lived in the hostel located on the premises of the college.

Her fellow students said that on Thursday night Fatima complained of a severe pain and told them that some poisonous insect might have bitten her.

The students said they immediately approached the hostel warden to shift her to the hospital but got no response from her. Urooj Fatima later died.

After emergency services were called, their staff reached the college and pronounced the student dead and shifted the body to the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) for a postmortem at about 8am.

Angry students gathered outside the hostel and demanded legal action against the hostel administration, claiming that their fellow student had died due to negligence of the hostel warden.

“When the hostel warden was informed about the critical condition of Fatima, he did not take the matter seriously and told us to wait till the morning,” said one of the protesters.

Another student also blamed the hostel warden and claimed that their complaints about hostel problems were always ignored.

However, the college’s principal, Prof Dr Aalia Sohail Khan, assured the students that the body had been sent to hospital for a postmortem and strict action would be initiated after the report was received.

She claimed that Fatima was suffering from a cardiac disease. But the student’s uncle disputed her claim and said his niece had no such disease.

On the other hand, the Punjab government constituted a two-member committee, headed by an assistant commissioner, to probe into the incident and submit a report.

It was not immediately clear how the student died as no torture marks could be found on the body during the initial postmortem.

Specimens collected from the body were sent to the laboratory for analysis to determine whether the student had died of poisoning or any other reason.

The police investigating officer recorded statements of the hostel warden and students who had been staying with the deceased and launched an investigation.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2018