Student’s mysterious death: Police search of hostel offers no clues

Students continue protests as New Town SHO urges people to refrain from speculating cause of girl’s death

RAWALPINDI: Following the death of a student on Friday, police have conducted a thorough search of the hostel where her body was found but have failed to find any clues which could offer them greater insights into her mysterious death.

A squad of senior police officers led by Rawal Town Superintendent of Police (SP) Asim Jasra, accompanied by New Town precinct SHO Mirza Javed, searched the dorm room of 20-year-old student Urooj Fatima. She used to study at the Postgraduate College for Women located on Sixth Road in the Satellite Town area of Rawalpindi.

Police officers said that they had conducted an extensive search of the girl’s room but did not find any suspicious item.

Sources added that the police then expanded their search to the adjacent rooms and even the corridor but did not discover anything suspicious.

The police also took statements of the college administration and other students.

Meanwhile, SHO Javed has said that they were not yet in a position to either confirm or deny anything until the final post-mortem report, complete with results of tests on samples drawn from the girl's stomach return from the forensic laboratory in Lahore.

He urged people to refrain from speculating on the cause of the girl’s death until the final report was out.

Meanwhile, some students at the college continued their protest against the college’s administration, accusing it of apathy and negligence.

On Friday morning, students living in the hostel had discovered that Fatima was lying dead.

The students had claimed that the girl had probably been bitten by a poisonous creature. However, the college’s authorities and hostel in-charge had argued that per her parents, she had been suffering from a rare heart condition and had not been receiving the requisite treatment for the past few months which could have caused her death.

Fatima was a third-semester student of the Bachelors of Study (BS) programme offered by the college.

Her body had been subsequently moved to the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) where a three-member team of lady doctors performed an autopsy. After completing all medico-legal formalities, her body was handed over to her family who took her to their hometown in Fateh Jhang for burial.

With news of the death spreading, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar along with the Punjab education minister and the Punjab higher education secretary had taken notice of the incident. They directed inquiries in the matter and sought reports.

An initial inquiry, though, failed to offer any clues as to what caused her death.

The report, compiled by Colleges Director Jahanzeb, comprises statements from four students of the college, including her three roommates.

The students say that Fatima was up till late on Thursday night studying.

“We repeatedly asked her to go to sleep, but she kept saying that she would turn off the lights after completing her studies,” the report quoted Fatima’s fellow students.

The next morning, when the other students got up, they say Fatima lying with her mouth open, two wounds on leg littered with ants while her body was blue.

The students said they cleared the ants and dressed the wound. They also tried to get her to drink some water but she did not respond.

If Fatima is found to have been bitten by a creature, it would make it the third such case at the college. Previously, there were complaints that a student had been bitten by a snake on campus while another had been attacked by a wildcat.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2018.