Doctors probing the alleged honor killing of a nine-year-old girl in Sindh’s Wahi Pandhi, on Friday, said that the case does not look as if her death was caused by stoning or from falling off a mountain.
Speaking to the media, Professor Dr. Waheed Ali Nahyoon of the Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) said that the probe did not reveal any marks or evidence to indicate that the minor girl had been stoned to death, or that she had died after falling from a great height.
Honor Killing Probe
Dr. Waheed Ali Nahyoon is a member of the medical team established by Dr. Masood Ahmad Solangi, Director General of Sindh Health Services, to conduct an inquiry into the alleged honor killing of a nine-year-old girl. The team has been tasked with conducting a post-mortem and investigating the true cause of her death.
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The medical board consists of the medical superintended of Hyderabad, two professors from LUMHS Jamshoro, and the Hyderabad Police surgeon.
For now, the investigation is being regarded as an accident. Dr. Nahyoon revealed that the body did not bear any marks of torture, and the death seemed to have occurred after something heavy fell upon her. Dr. Nahyoon explained her injuries, saying that the bones of the lower half of the girl’s face and skull had been broken, alongside four of her ribs.
Read more: Honor killing in Dadu: How Karo-Kari became cultural norm in Sindh?
Earlier on Wednesday, the medical board investigating the cause of death cast doubts on the claims that the victim had been stoned to death as there were no visible signs of that kind of torture.
The four-member team set up by the Sindh Health Services revealed that the nine-year-old girl had suffered fractures to her head, nose, and jaw, and her ribs had also been broken. However, the wounds did not indicate any signs of being stoned to death.
However, there was a grave wound on her skull, which indicated signs of blunt force trauma, as if she had been hit with a heavy object. The medical board concluded that a DNA test is required to confirm if the victim had been raped before her death and whether it is the body of the same girl or another one.
Earlier this week, Agha Imran Pathan, a local judicial magistrate had approved the exhumation of the body after Farrukh Raza, senior superintended of Police (SSP) in Dadu had appealed in the court to allow the body to be exhumed.
Read more: Karo-Kari in Sindh: A Practice Related to Honor That Has No Honor in itself
The first information report (FIR) filed in this case cites the names of five individuals, including the girl’s father, Ali Baksh, Maulvi Mumtaz Laghari and those who facilitated the funeral and burial. So far, three of these have been arrested, including the father, Moulvi Laghari and another individual.
On November 21, the nine-year-old girl was allegedly stoned to death in an honor dispute in Wahi Pandhi.