CHAKWAL: Chakwal police have sought court’s permission to exhume the body of a girl who died mysteriously and was buried in haste.

Dawn has learnt that a local court in Chakwal has allowed the police to exhume the body for an autopsy but the family members of the deceased have managed to obtain a stay order from Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench. The LHC has summoned both parties on October 24.

Arooj Arshad, 22, a resident of Khairpur village in tehsil Kallar Kahar, was a student of BS Honours. She died on the night of October 2 and 3 under mysterious circumstances.

According to the police, the girl was brought to Fauji Foundation Hospital Kallar Kahar where she was received dead.

“The family members of the deceased returned from hospital around 4am and the body was buried at 9am in haste,” Station House Officer Ahsan Rasheed told Dawn.

According to documents obtained by Dawn, Arooj Arshad left her home on August 29 and went to a civil court in Rawalpindi on August 30 where she sought court’s permission to take refuge in a shelter home, stating that her father wanted to marry her off to a drug addict and that he also used to beat her. The court accepted her application and granted her permission to stay in a shelter home where she stayed for nine days.

“Her family kept trying to bring her back but the girl was not willing. However on September 8, the family members managed to placate her and brought her back home,” the SHO said.

During the night of October 2 and 3, the girl died mysteriously and was buried in a hasty manner which gave rise to suspicions on the nature of her death.

“The maternal uncle of the deceased had remained in jail on charges of committing double murder and had been booked for killing his sister-in-law and another man. He is our prime suspect in this case too,” a police official said, terminghonourkilling as a usual occurrence in the area.

However the family members of the deceased stated before the court that Arooj died of a natural death and police were trying to defame them by leveling false allegations.

“It is our prime duty to ascertain the exact cause of the suspicious death,” a police official said.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2025