RAWALPINDI: A young girl who reportedly ran away from her home died shortly after being brought back home by her parents and was laid to rest in the Jatli area, raising suspicions in the police that she might have been killed over ‘honour’.

A detective foot constable posted at the Jatli police station reported on Tuesday that he was on duty near Syed Adda when he received information that a 17-year-old girl, who was a first-year student (college student) and resident of Syed Kasran, had been missing from her home.

In a statement, he further said that after her parents knew that she had been missing, the girl’s father and uncle launched a search and finally she was found at the Syed Adda.

She was brought home by her parents who suspected that she had befriended someone and attempted to run away from home. The DFC further said that the news of the girl’s death spread in the area as the deceased was laid to rest in a local graveyard at about 2pm on Tuesday.

Police will file a request in the court of law to get permission for the exhumation of the body to ascertain the real circumstances and the cause of her death. A senior police officer confirmed that the incident had come to their knowledge and police were investigating it. According to the postmortem report, the legal proceedings will be initiated accordingly.

Last week, the Jatli police arrested four suspects after the exhumation and the initial report revealed that the 21-year-old girl had been poisoned by her sister’s in-laws to cover up her rape. The orphan girl was sexually assaulted for months allegedly by her brother-in-law and his accomplice who killed her and laid her to rest in the Jatli area.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2025