Murder mystery? : Bashir Qureshi died of heart problems, says UK lab report

JSQM claims report is fake, calls for a strike on April 30.

KARACHI: The chairperson of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Bashir Qureshi, was not poisoned to death, says a report compiled by the UK laboratory where his viscera were sent in November last year. It states that his arteries were constricted and he might have died of heart problems.

This chemical analysis report, compiled by LFC Forensic Lab, was sent to the health department on Thursday. Back in November last year, after many protests by party activists who sought a more detailed inquiry into Qureshi’s death, the provincial government decided to send the JSQM leader’s post-mortem remains to a UK laboratory for tests. Qureshi had passed away on April 7, 2012, after having dinner at the house of JSQM leaders in Sakrand, Shaheed Benazirabad.



Shortly after the meal, the 53-year-old JSQM chairperson complained of chest pains and was rushed to a hospital where he passed away. While the doctors at the Sakrand hospital said that Qureshi had died of a heart failure, his son and JSQM’s current chairperson, Sanan Qureshi, his brother Maqsood and the party’s vice-chairperson, Dr Niaz Kalani cried foul, claiming that he was poisoned. A forensic team put together by the government found traces of phosphorous in Qureshi’s body, but could not determine whether he was poisoned.

Coming under pressure, the provincial health department put together a 14-member committee, led by Prof. Umer Memon, the head of the forensic medical department at Dow Medical College to oversee the transfer of the viscera to LFC Lab in the UK.



On Thursday, a meeting of forensic experts were held at the chemical examiner’s office to discus the results sent back by LFC. Prof. Memon headed the meeting and the experts examined the report in detail.

Although the report said that Qureshi may have suffered heart pains, the term ‘heart attack’ was not used in it. Health officials said that approximately Rs10 million were spent by the government to find the cause of Qureshi’s death.The forensic experts were unsure whether this report or the one compiled immediately after Qureshi’s death would be sent to court.

JSQM claims report is fake

JSQM has claimed that the report is fake and called a strike across Sindh on April 30. “Bashir Qureshi struggled all his life for the rights of Sindh. We hope the people will show their reaction to the state by shutting down whole Sindh from Kashmore to Karachi,” JSQM’s general secretary Akash Mallah told The Express Tribune. He added that the party’s central committee took this decision on Thursday.

JSQM leaders find a conspiracy in what they described as an “unnecessary delay” in obtaining report from the UK laboratory. “This is fake report. We got in touch with the UK lab where the government said it had sent the report but there was no record by the name of Qureshi there,” claimed Mallah. He said the party believes the government sent samples of someone else instead of Qureshi. He demanded that Qureshi’s samples be given back to the JSQM so that it can conduct its own inquiry.

JSQM blames state institutions for Qureshi’s death. Qureshi’s brother has also filed a petition in the Sindh High Court pleading it to order the registration of an FIR for the JSQM leader’s death.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2013.