KARACHI/QUETTA: No marks of violence have been seen on any body part of the late Usman Khan Kakar, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) Balochistan chapter president and former senator, an autopsy report stated on Tuesday.

The report, however, did not conclusively give a cause of death and said it would emerge in the chemical and histopathology report for which samples have been collected.

Mr Kakar had received a head injury at his Quetta residence last week and was rushed to hospital where he was operated upon and put on a ventilator. Later, an air ambulance shifted him from Balochistan to a private hospital in Karachi where he passed away on Monday.

According to the findings of the post-mortem examination, all surgical wounds mentioned in the report were ante-mortem in nature.

Minister terms his death a big loss to Balochistan

Dr Summaiya Syed, additional police surgeon at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where the post-mortem examination was performed, said: “The alleged head injury could not be commented upon because of the surgical procedures carried out during life. However, CT scans, both ante-mortem and post-mortem, are available while hospital records and reports for chemical analysis and histopathology are awaited.”

The additional police surgeon said the family of the deceased had also requested for samples, which were provided to them, for independent testing.

Earlier, the opposition members in the Senate had raised suspicion over the mysterious death of the politician and demanded a parliamentary probe to ascertain facts.

Soon after the findings of the post-mortem examination were made public, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove and parliamentary secretary on health Dr Rubab Buledi addressed a press conference in Quetta to assert that the autopsy did not confirm any violence as the cause of Mr Kakar’s death.

The minister said: “There is no doubt that Usman Khan Kakar was a resourceful and fearless politician and the voice of the oppressed segments of the society and his death is a big loss to Balochistan.” However, he added, spread of rumours related to the leader’s death was alarming.

At the presser, Dr Naqibullah Achakzai, who had operated upon the PkMAP provincial chapter president last week, shared with the media a detailed account of the injuries and surgical treatment provided to him. He denied the reports that quoted him as saying Mr Kakar had been hit by a hammer. “My team did not talk about the head injury caused by a hammer. We heard he fell in the bathroom and there could be several reasons for this [head injury].”

He said he was unaware about the content of the post-mortem examination report though he had heard one such report was shared on the social media.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2021