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The medical board formed to exhume the body of a nine-year-old maid in Sindh’s Khairpur has confirmed that she was subjected to physical torture and concluded that she might have been sexually assaulted, a police official told Dawn.com on Sunday.
The deceased girl was employed as a domestic maid at a haveli (mansion) owned by local influential Pir Asad Shah — who is now in custody — in Khairpur’s Ranipur area and was found dead under mysterious circumstances earlier this week.
A case was subsequently lodged on the complaint of her mother, Shabnam Khatoon, under Sections 302 (intentional murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Ranipur police station and an investigation was initiated.
On Friday, Khairpur police constituted a medical board to exhume the victim’s body and conduct a post-mortem analysis, which was completed yesterday.
In light of the board’s findings, Sukkur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Javed Jiskani said the remand of the Ranipur station house officer (SHO) and head muharrar, a doctor and a compounder, all of whom were included in the case’s investigation, would be sought.
“The suspects will also be nominated in the case for distorting facts and burying the [girl’s] body without a postmortem analysis,” he told Dawn.com over the phone.
The DIG further said that other children employed at the haveli would be “immediately rescued” and sent to their homes while a police camp would be set up at the mansion to collect the DNA samples of men residing there.
Medical report
The medical board’s findings shared by the DIG were confirmed in its report, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.
The report bore the signatures of Dr Aqeel Ahmed Qureshi, Dr Amanullah Bhangwar, Dr Jawaid Ahmed Qureshi, Dr Sultan Rajpar and Dr Yasmeen Jokhio. It said that technical assistance was also provided by Dr Waqar Ahmad Shaikh and Dr Summaiya Syed, the police surgeons of Hyderabad and Karachi, respectively.
The report said that the girl’s body was in an advanced stage of decomposition “with bluish discolouration on the right side of the face and forehead, and greenish mottled discolouration over the left side of the face, neck and shoulder”.
It added that her abdomen was distended while hands, feet and knees were “blackish with wrinkled skin”. It also noted that there was a “reddish blister” on the right side of the perianal region (the area surrounding the anus).
Documenting the injuries, the report said that the victim had bruising over the right side of her forehead and both eyes. It said that there was also bruising on her right upper chest and back while the front side of both her arms and forearms were also bruised.
The report said that all the injuries were “antemortem in nature”, which means that they occurred before her death.
The medical board concluded that their findings after vaginal and anal examinations were “suggestive” of vaginal and anal penetration.
The report said swabs had been collected for laboratory analyses.
Police action
Later, Khairpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mir Rohal Khoso told Dawn.com that they had detained a doctor who was working at a government hospital in Ranipur after his retirement from the provincial health department.
According to Sindh Health Services Director General Irshad Memon, the facility where the doctor was working operated under the administrative jurisdiction of the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (Gims), Khairpur.
However, SSP Khoso said, it was yet to be determined whether the doctor had any role in the case.
Meanwhile, he added, some other suspects were also taken into custody, including the Ranipur SHO. “But it is yet to be decided whether he should be nominated in the case,” the SSP said.
He said that the suspects would be presented in the relevant court and their remand would be sought.
The official refused, for now, to reveal the names of other suspected taken into custody.
“Their names can only be disclosed tomorrow,” he said, adding that it was to be ensured that no injustice was done to anyone.
He also confirmed that police had obtained DNA samples of key suspect Asad Shah’s brothers and father.
The case
The girl’s father, Nadeem Ali Phariro, had initially claimed that the girl was afflicted by some stomach-related ailment, as indicated by doctors when she was taken to a private hospital on the night of Aug 14-15.
Later, the girl died in her house after having been discharged from hospital.
Claims about her death transpiring as a result of torture came to the fore when videos of a girl bearing torture marks went viral. It was not known who leaked the videos. These videos were obtained by the police team, which also met some social activists from the area.
After the videos went viral in the district, police took notice of the matter and Sukkur Counterterrorism Department Deputy Superintendent of Police Abdul Qudoos Kalwar met the girl’s parents. He later met social activists and viewed the viral videos, subsequently reporting to DIG Jiskani that the matter was serious and the exhumation of Fatima’s body was required.
On Aug 17, Khairpur police also arrested a key suspect in the case, who was later remanded into police custody.
Yesterday, another teenage housemaid alleged that she was tortured by Syed Asad Shah and his wife, Hina Shah, who have been detained.
Khairpur SSP Khoso said the 13-year-old girl made the claims in a video and police were making her statement part of the case file of the FIR lodged by Fatima’s mother against Asad Shah and his wife.
