QUETTA: Police Surgeon Dr Aye­sha Faiz and Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital Dr Saleem Abro have rejected the perception that the death of Prof Arman Loni, said to be a member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, was caused by police torture and said that during the post-mortem examination no torture mark was found on the body.

However, they said, samples of brain, heart and some other parts of the body had been sent to the Forensic Laboratory, Lahore, to determine the cause of Prof Loni’s death.

Mr Loni died under mysterious circumstances during a sit-in staged in Loralai on Saturday to protest against a recent terrorist attack on the DIG office complex in the town.

According to Loralai police, they came to the venue of the sit-in on the tip-off about the presence of a wanted man there. However, some participants of the sit-in offered resistance to the police attempt to arrest the suspect, which led to a scuffle during which Prof Loni died.

On the other hand, the bereaved family and the participants of the sit-in believe that the activist’s death was caused by police torture.

Speaking at a press conference at the Civil Hospital on Thursday, Dr Abro and Dr Faiz said that a brief post-mortem examination of Mr Loni’s body was conducted in presence of 10 doctors, including those from Loralai who were recommended by the family of the deceased.

“During the post-mortem, we examined his chest, abdomen, stomach, head and heart and also carried out CT scan and X-ray of the body, but found no torture mark,” the medical superintendent and the police surgeon said.

“However, we found a blood clot in his brain and that the deceased’s face had turned blue,” they added.

They said the Lahore laboratory would take 10 to 20 days to issue the report of forensic tests of the body parts.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2019