MULTAN, Feb 2: A team of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency on Saturday collected specimens from the body of Kamran Faisal, assistant director of the National Accountability Bureau, after exhuming the body from his grave in Mian Channu, 70km from here.

Sources said a team of Islamabad police, led by investigation officer Rana Mubarrak Ali, reached Mian Channu and approached Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed, the magistrate, for permission to exhume the body and collect samples.

The magistrate granted permission and supervised the process himself.

The four-member team — comprising Deputy Director of the agency Rana Naseer, Dr Mahboob Jilani, Dr Nauman Rasool and Dr Imran — exhumed the body, collected the samples and left for Lahore to conduct a forensic analysis of the samples.

Kamran Faisal was found hanging from a fan in a government-run hostel in the federal capital on Jan 18, just three days after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf over the rental power plants scam.

AFP adds: According to conclusions of the initial autopsy, Kamran Faisal committed suicide, but his family and some of his colleagues believe he was murdered.

“We have exhumed Kamran Faisal’s body for an independent examination,” Rana Naseer, head of the forensic team, said.

“The agency sought exhumation of the body after a controversy was developed on the initial post-mortem report,” he said.

Another official said the body was exhumed to determine whether Kamran Faisal committed suicide or was murdered.