LAHORE: A fresh postmortem was carried out yesterday on the body of Hasan Nasir, a Security Act detenu, who is said by the police to have committed suicide in Lahore Fort on Nov 13 last. The body was exhumed this morning under the orders of the West Pakistan High Court.

Begum Zohra Alambardar Husain, the mother of Hasan Nasir, and advocate Ishaq Mohammad on whose revision petition Mr Justice S.A. Mahmud had ordered the exhumation and fresh autopsy, both in their on-the-spot statements before the relevant official, said that as the body was in a highly decomposed state, they were not in a position to say whether it was of Hasan Nasir's. The 45-year-old woman, who came from Hyderabad (India) last week to take the body of her son, admitted her inability to identify the body.

Police surgeon Dr Siddiq Husain and CID Inspector Maqsud Ahmad in their statements said that the exhumed body was that of Hasan Nasir. In a separate statement after the postmortem, the police surgeon, who had conducted the first postmortem on the body on Nov 14, said that except that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, he did not notice any other evidence of change.

Four top-most surgeons of Lahore — Dr Amiruddin, Dr Riaz A. Qadir, Dr A.H. Sheikh and Dr A.A. Malick — conducted the postmortem for about 90 minutes in the mortuary in the presence of the police surgeon. The report would be delivered by the panel of doctors directly to the district magistrate.

The mother of Hasan Nasir refused to take possession of the body on the plea that it was not of her son's. It was then handed over to the Old Anarkali Police Station for re-burial.

Inspector Maqsud told newsmen that it was no surprise for them to see the woman refusing to identify the body as that of her son. He was sure that the old woman was instructed by Indian communists not to own the body.

Meanwhile, the inquiry about the death of Hasan Nasir which is being held by the district magistrate was adjourned for the day. There were no proceedings in this respect yesterday.