Social activist’s body exhumed for autopsy

Accused Ghazanfar allegedly killed Saba over issue of dumping garbage in neighbourhood

KARACHI:

The grave of Saba Aslam, 27, a social activist, murdered last month, was opened to exhume the body for postmortem in New Karachi on Sunday.

Saba was allegedly killed by Ghazanfar with a sharp object in the Bilal Colony area of New Karachi. The accused had quarreled with Saba a few days ago before the incident over the issue of dumping garbage in the area, and he also did not like Saba's social work.

When contacted in this regard, Station Investigation Officer (SIO) Bilal Colony Inspector Arif Shah said that the family members were angry on the day of the incident, and they did not get the post-mortem conducted before taking the body away with them.

The police had already arrested the suspect, but the lack of the post-mortem report benefited the accused, and serious difficulties were being faced in the legal proceedings. Arif Shah further said that he talked to the victim's family members and convinced them that post-mortem is very important; otherwise, the case would be weakened, after which they agreed, after which the police approached the court for exhumation. The grave was exhumed after receiving a court order.

The post-mortem report will be received in a few days, after which further legal action will be taken against the accused Ghazanfar. The medical board that exhumed the deceased Saba was headed by Dr Sohail Yar Khan, a senior MLO and grade 20 officer of the Sindh Health Department.

Dr Sohail said there were marks of wounds inflicted by a sharp object on the body of the victim. During the autopsy, samples of various body parts have been saved and sent for laboratory tests, whose report will be received in the next few days, after which the final report will be submitted.