LAHORE, July 9: Heirs to an 18-year-old girl protested at the city mortuary on Wednesday after Gulberg police turned down their request to avoid autopsy.

Police shifted the body of Naila, daughter of Barket Masih, to the city mortuary, after she was killed in firing by unidentified people on Ghalib Road on Tuesday night.

Her family, including mother and sisters, asked the police and mortuary officials to hand over the body to them without autopsy. On their refusal, the family scuffled with officials and staged a protest-cum- sit-in.

A police investigator told Dawn the girl was breathing in spite of receiving two bullets when police arrived at the crime scene.

Her father, however, was reluctant to get her to hospital and rather insisted on taking her to home for the reasons best known to him. He said the attitude of Barket suggested that he knew the killer(s).

He said investigators had fond no clue to the killer(s) but

Barket would be included in interrogation.