The suspects, Tooba and Farooq, took the lie detector test for allegedly killing the aspiring model, who was found dead in a suitcase in Lahore.
On Tuesday, the post-mortem report showed that she was likely suffocated to death. The report came just a day after a third suspect was detained for involvement in the murder of Abeera.
Abeera, 20, had shifted to Lahore from Sialkot to study at a private university. Initially, she lived with her maternal uncle but later she moved to a girl’s hostel on Wehdat Road.
As per the post-mortem report, no torture marks were found on the 20-year-old’s body and that she apparently died due to suffocation.
The autopsy report also ascertained that the victim's body was kept in a freezer before it was stuffed in a bag due to which it became stiff.
“No fingerprints were found on her hands, arms,” the report added. However, medics stated in the autopsy report that the exact cause of death or possibility of sexual assault cannot be conclusively determined until the results of her swabs, different body organs, hair and nails arrive from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA).
SP Iqbal Town Ejaz Shafi Dogar told The Express Tribune, that he was not ruling out other causes of death. “Preliminary investigations clubbed with autopsy report show that the death was caused by excessive use of some intoxicants, but (this) will be ascertained only after the (forensic) report arrives.”
"The results will ascertain if the girl was murdered through suffocation by someone or a chemical reaction in her body due to presence of some drugs or poison which lead her to suffocate to death."
The samples and swabs were sent to PFSA three weeks ago and it normally takes the lab six weeks to complete its report.
On Tuesday police detained a third suspect as one of the arrested accused Uzma alias Tooba had claimed that a private bank’s executive was also involved in the murder.
Police detained the suspect Farooq from outside a bank.
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According to the police, the young girl wanted to become a model and her passion led her to make-up artist Uzma Rao alias Tooba.
An investigation officer told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity that accused Uzma alias Tooba told them that another ‘friend’ of hers named Farooq killed Abeera.
The official further added that the victim wanted to become a model and hence contacted Tooba, a dance event manager and a makeup artist to help her make a career in the modeling industry.
The officer said Tooba used to live with Farooq and introduced Abeera to Farooq 10 days before her death.
Delineating the details of the night Abeera was killed, Tooba said the hapless girl came to their house where Farooq took her to a room and locked it from inside.
“After a couple of minutes, she heard them having a fight inside the room but kept on cooking dinner in the kitchen,” the officer quoted her as saying.
“Tooba further told that after some time she heard Abeera screaming at Farooq and asking him to fulfill his unknown ‘promise’.”
The officer added, after a couple of minutes Tooba heard Abeera weeping after which Farooq opened the door.
“She said that the girl had died by then and her friend, Farooq packed the girl’s body in a bag and asked her to dump it anywhere and left the home,” the officer added.
The officer further said Tooba then hired a rickshaw driver, Aslam, who helped her pick the bag and took it to a bus stand on Bund Road, where she left it and came back to her house.
SP Iqbal Town SP Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khan told The Express Tribune that police buried the girl after autopsy.
“We found poisonous substances – arsenic and nitrate- from Tooba’s house which the accused said Farooq had with him on the day Abeera was killed,” the SP said.
Further, he said the exact cause of the death could not be known. However, torture marks were found on the girl’s body by the police while autopsy report suggested that the girl was strangled.
The official added another FIR of the case was lodged under section 302 against Tooba and the rickshaw driver.
The driver was taken by the police as an accomplice of at first, as Tooba stated that the rickshaw driver had murdered him.
He further said police were making raids to arrest the new suspect, Farooq, while his name will be entered in the FIR after police interrogates him.
SP Iqbal Khan also said the victim’s brother, Zohaib Iqbal Bhatti, had earlier lodged an FIR at Wehdat Colony police station after she went missing.
“Later he was shown pictures of unknown people found dead by police in the city; from where Zohaib identified his sister,” he added.
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“Police detained the hostel owner where Abeera used to live, who in turn, identified Tooba from the CCTV footages shown to him and police tracked down accused Tooba by tracing her phone call details.”
Family’s account
Victim Abeera Iqbal’s father, Muhammad Iqbal Bhatti is a resident of Cantt area in Sialkot.
Her brothers, Javed and Zohaib Iqbal Bhatti are into real estate business in Sialkot. Her mother died couple of years ago.
Uzma, Abeera’s sister, while speaking to The Express Tribune said Abeera wanted to become a model and was fond of taking her pictures.
“Is trying to become a model a crime so big as to be punished by death?” she questioned.
“The culprits must be given an exemplary punishment so that never again a sister will have to cry over her sibling’s murder,” she added.
Further, she said, “Abeera had never hurt anyone and had a soft heart, she wanted to complete her studies too and she was a good girl, not involved in any bad activities.”
“I request the police to be with us and help us take the ones responsible for my sister’s murder, to book,” she pleaded.
Sources within the police department told The Express Tribune that the girl’s family was also trying to get her body exhumed and get her buried in her home town.
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