BAHAWALNAGAR: The family of a minor girl, whose body was found in an open sewage tank, a day after she went missing on January 24, fear that she was murdered and her body was dumped into the tank to make the incident look like an accident.

The victim, four-year-old Mehrun Nisa, had gone missing from Gulshan Habib locality on the evening of January 24. Her body was found in an uncovered sewage tank, outside her house, the next day.

The victim’s father Arslan Shafique told Dawn that initially they thought it was an accident, but later the family realised that the height of the tank, where the girl’s body was found, was half the girl’s height, leaving no chance of her drowning.

Moreover, he said, on the night the girl went missing, all the sewage tanks in the locality, including the one outside their house, were thoroughly checked, but the body was not there.

The family demanded the police to properly investigate the incident and trace the culprits involved in the girl’s ‘murder’.

Say Minchinabad THQ hospital made them buy autopsy-related material from market

Mr Shafique alleged that the administration of Minchinabad Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where the girl’s body was shifted to for autopsy, forced them to purchase 12 items used in the procedure, including salt, surgical blades, surgical gloves, candles and cotton -- all worth Rs5,000 from the market.

He regretted that after the autopsy, the hospital staffers also forced them to pay to the sweepers for shifting the body to the morgue, terming it a callous act, that was also against the rules.

He demanded action against the hospital administration.

Minchinabad police station in-charge Naveed Nazakat rejected the allegation that the girl was murdered. He said the chances of the minor girl’s drowning could not be ruled out because of the size of the sewage tank.

He said the initial postmortem report did not prove that the girl was murdered, adding that the police were waiting for the forensic report to ascertain the facts, before taking any further step in this regard.

THQ hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Abdul Rahman admitted that sometimes the victim’s family was asked to purchase certain items used in autopsy from the market because of these were unavailable in the hospital stock.

A medical officer, requesting anonymity, told Dawn, that there was no mechanism available for free supply of autopsy-related items to hospitals across the district and people had to buy these items privately.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2023