LAHORE: Forensic tests have confirmed Sania Zehra’s murder and no influence or pressure has been considered in the case, says Punjab Women Protection Authority Chairperson Hina Parvez Butt.

“The era where murders could be disguised as suicides to avoid detection is over. We cannot allow our girls to be murdered,” she told a presser at the Directorate General of Public Relations here on Monday. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari was also present there.

Twenty-year-old Sania, a mother of two, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her bedroom in Multan on July 9. Her father alleged her death was not a suicide and that she murder by her husband and in-laws.

Hina Butt said societal intolerance caused women to become victims of domestic violence and added that Zehra was hanged after being killed was evident. The exhumation of the body and the forensic report revealed that Zehra’s husband and mother-in-law’s DNA matched.

“Despite being in police custody, the victim’s husband, Ali Raza, was not willing to provide his DNA. The suspect and his mother’s polygraph tests have been conducted and the results are positive,” Hina Butt said. She stressed that it was a test case and requested the courts to punish the accused.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024