LOWER DIR: A 12-year-old bride, who died under mysterious circumstances in her stepmother’s house in Muhabat Koto village of Maidan area here, underwent postmortem examination at the Peshawar Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, on Monday.

She was later laid to rest in the village.

The local police said they would formally begin investigation into the death after getting the postmortem report, which was likely to happen today (Tuesday).

The body was shifted to the HMC by a joint team of the Samarbagh and Lal Qila police stations.

The police didn’t make any arrest over the death as no one was named by the father-in-law of the girl, who had died on the fifth day of marriage.

The girl’s father-in-law, Wazir Mohammad of Samarbagh area, said he had married the girl off to his 13-year-old son, Aminullah, on July 7 by pitying her.

He said the girl lived with her stepmother as her father had divorced her real mother few years ago.

Mr Wazir said the bride was ‘sick, weak and pale’, so he got her examined by a doctor first in Mayar and then at the DHQ Hospital, Timergara, but her condition deteriorated.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2020