THATTA: In perhaps the first case of necrophilia in the district in years, some unknown men dug out corpse of a freshly-buried teenage girl and raped it in Maulvi Ashraf Chandio village near coastal town Ghulamullah on Saturday.

The victim’s parents and relatives told reporters that they believed a local goon who was son of the village landlord was involved in the heinous crime.

They said that they buried the 14-year-old girl who had died of natural causes, in the village’s graveyard late last night and returned. When the parents visited the grave in the morning according to local traditions, they found it dug up and the body missing, they said, adding the body, showing signs of rape, was later found in a ditch in nearby jungle.

They said the parents reported the matter to local police but they paid no heed and made light of the heinous crime.

The parents then brought the body to Thatta Civil Hospital for autopsy where medical superintendent confirmed the assault on the body, they said.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, who rushed to the village to offer condolences to the victim’s family, told reporters that Ghulamullah town SHO Ghulam Hussain Khachar, who was resident of Sindh chief minister’s constituency, should also be nominated in FIR for his criminal negligence.

He said that Sindh had turned into a state within a state where waderas associated with Pakistan Peoples Party ruled their respective areas on their own.

PPP government in Sindh had now forfeited its right to govern, he said.

No FIR has been registered yet.

Published in Dawn, August 15th , 2021