SAHIWAL: Around three and half months have passed but the Farid Town police have yet to conclude the inquiry to confirm the cause of the ‘mysterious death’ of an 18-year-old girl, a seminary student.

Belonging to Kameer Town, Fazeen Bibi was residing in the hostel of the Jamia Islamia Bahaarul Uloom, Kot Farid, where she was the the 4th year Dars-i-Nizami student.The police are trying to collect remaining report from the forensic report from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore which would confirm whether the death of Fazeen was accidental, suicide or murder.

Farid Town police investigation officer Umer Daraz told Dawn that complete forensic report had not yet been received. “Out of 10 samples, police have received report of six.”

Her family, including her father Muhammad Sharif, a small farmer, alleges that she was poisoned to death while the seminary administrator says the girl had died after she took some expired ‘Phaki’ to cure her digestive problem. Mrs Ghazala Asif, Nazima of seminary, told Dawn the girl had reacted to some dispute with her family which family categorically denied.

The family claims it is facing pressure to withdraw the complaint it has submitted against the seminary administration, blaming it for the death of its daughter.

Alleges daughter was poisoned

Farid Town police and district administration had assured the poor family of the deceased of an impartial inquiry into the death after registering a report under Section 174 (unnatural death) on July 2.

Dawn learnt Fazeen’s family approached District Police Officer retired Captain Ali Zia, DSP Mahar Waseem and SP Investigation Shahida Noureen for completing the investigation but the police were awaiting complete forensic report.

The sudden death was such a shock for Fazeen’s mother, Kalsoom Akhter, that she had a stroke and paralysis attack within a week.

Fazeen, a resident of Chak 26-EB, Kameer, was the daughter of Sharif. She got admission to the seminary being run by Ghazala Asif, the widow of retired DSP Asif Riaz. Ghazala’s sons also help her run the administrative matters while one of them has contested previous local government election on the PTI ticket.

Ghazala told Dawn Fazeen was a brilliant student. She topped her class in third annual examination and took evening classes from a seminary teacher, Qari Liaquat Ali, along with other girls.

On July 22, Fazeen’s family received a phone call from Ghazala at night that their daughter’s condition had got serious after taking some ‘Phaki’. The family rushed to Sahiwal from Kameer at 11pm. Fazeen’s brother Arsalan said since his sister’s condition was critical, the family asked the seminary administration to shift her to the DHQ Hospital. Fazeen was eventually shifted to the hospital.

Hospital record showed Fazeen was brought to the emergency of the DHQ Teaching Hospital in critical condition at 12:03am by Ghazala, seminary staff and her family.

Fazeen’s attendants told doctors she had taken expired ‘Phaki’. Emergency doctors treated her for having poison in the stomach. Farid Town police were also called. Zeeshan, SHO, Farid Town police claimed they got the statement from Fazeen in front of three hospital doctors in which she said that she had taken some Phaki. Investigation officer told Dawn they were searching for Fazeen’s classmates Mahrun Nisa who had give Phaki to her from her cupboards.

Fazeen’s other brother Waheed told Dawn her condition was so critical that she could not speak to anyone due to pain and expired at 5am. Both the doctors and parents refused to accept Ghazala’s version of Phaki. The family brought the body out of the hospital and placed it on the Noor Shah Road in protest, which continued for five hours.

Later, Assistant Commissioner Saif assured them that justice would be done. The family wanted a post-mortem, blaming that their daughter was killed or murdered.

Fazeen’s post-mortem was done by Dr Fatima Saira, the woman medical officer of the DHQ Hospital, which confirmed that the death was caused by poison. The doctors sent 10 collected samples for forensic analysis to Lahore.

On other hand, Farid Town police did not register any FIR but wrote a report under Section 174.

This correspondence took a report generated at the front desk of ‘Police Station Record Management System’ dated July 23, 2019, which gave wrong facts of the case as the girl’s name was written as ‘Faiz Bibi’ while seminary name was given as Madressa Abdul Aloom.

The report states: “Fazeen death had occurred due to some eatable”.

Muhammad Sahi, the then investigating officer, told Dawn the police had secured girl’s statement along with her thumb impression and she herself had claimed taking Phaki. Meanwhile, Qari Liaqat of the seminary along with other religious prayer leaders visited the family and again insisted that the girl had died because of Phaki. Qari Liaqat Ali told Dawn that girl was having some domestic problem with her family. A seminary’s security guard endorsed Qari’s stand.

Waheed told Dawn that a 15-member delegation visited his father Muhammad Sharif

along with some influential people of the area and pressurized them to drop the charges.

Waheed claimed two unidentified motorcyclists had intercepted him some days ago and threatened him with dire consequences if he pursued the case. He said the DSP and the SHO concerned were told about the threats but police did not take any action.

Ghazala said the girl was beaten by her brother during her stay at home on July 18 and she had taken some step in reaction to brother’s behaviour. Waheed and Muhammad Sharif deny any kind of beating.

Sharif has appealed to the IGP for an impartial inquiry into his daughter’s death.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019