Family decries minor's 'grave tempering'

The grave of a seven-year-old girl was allegedly desecrated on Thursday, two days after her burial at the Khan Colony graveyard on Girja Road in Dhamial police limits.

The girl's father, Zafar Iqbal, said he had visited the cemetery on Thursday morning to offer Fateha at the grave of his daughter, Aleena, who died on August 26 and was laid to rest there. On arrival, he claimed he found the grave partially dug up, with pieces of the burial shroud discovered in a nearby building. Shocked, he immediately alerted the police.

Dhamial SHO and other officers reached the site soon afterwards. Saddar SP Nabeel Khokhar confirmed that the matter had been reported by the family, but said it remained unclear whether the grave had, in fact, been interfered with.

Judicial Magistrate Syed Ali Jawad Naqvi has ordered the exhumation of the victim's grave.

The court directed the Medical Superintendent of District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Rawalpindi to form a medical board comprising senior lady doctors to conduct the post-mortem exam. The exhumation is scheduled for September 2 (Tuesday), with the magistrate personally supervising the process.