Nurse’s murder: Doctor arrested for conducting fake autopsy

Another doctor in the case yet to be arrested as she is out of town.

GILGIT: The Gilgit police Sunday arrested a medical officer for conducting a fake autopsy of a nurse found dead in her room couple of months ago. Another doctor, wanted on same charges, was out of town and not arrested till last reports came in.

“The medical officer at the District Headquarter Hospital, Dr Yaqoob, has been arrested on court orders,” said a police official. Hospital sources, however, said that soon after his arrest, Yaqoob pretended to be a heart patient and had himself admitted in a hospital.

Shabana Akhtar, a young nurse from Astore valley, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room at the Gilgit Nursing Hostel in May. Initially police closed the case after a panel of doctors, headed by the medical officer Dr Yaqoob, examined the body and declared it a suicide.

However, after local media highlighted the issue, G-B’s Supreme Appellate Court took suo motu notice of the murder. The police launched a fresh investigation into the incident which eventually led them to Jamila, the hostel’s warden, and Nadeem Abbas, a male nurse. The two confessed to killing the 20-year-old nurse and staging her suicide. The murder’s motive, police said, was an “indecent” video of Jamila that Shabana had in her phone and was refusing to delete.

“A team of experts from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad excavated the body and had it re-examined, which revealed that an autopsy had not been done before,” said an investigation officer.

Following the report, police issued arrest warrants for Dr Yaqoob and Dr Dilshad, he added. The male doctor was arrested; Dr Dilshad, however, was not arrested because she was reportedly out of the town.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th,  2011.