Mysterious death: Court asks for soldier’s autopsy report

Family says they were neither informed about cause of death, nor given financial assistance.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has asked the commandant of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) to present the postmortem report of an army soldier allegedly killed at Bacha Khan International Airport (BKIA).

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani, issued the orders  on Wednesday while hearing an application filed by brother of the deceased Zeeshan Anwar to the Human Rights Directorate. The application was later converted into a human rights petition.



Anwar told the court they were informed one day that his brother Naik Jibran Anwar had died on duty. He had been posted at BKIA at the time of his death.

Zeeshan said when his family asked the concerned departments the cause of death, they concealed facts and later said he died of a bullet injury.  “They told us an army official was court martialed for Jibran’s murder but then later said my brother committed suicide.”



The court later asked commandant CMH to present the postmortem report and asked the federal and provincial government to submit their reply.

Zeeshan said they were given no financial compensation  although his brother died on duty.

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