CHITRAL, Sept 12: An apparent suicide case turned out one of a murder when body of a 23-year-old girl was exhumed on the insistence of police here and a four-member team of district headquarters hospital carried out the post-mortem.

Station house officer of Mulkhow police station Adam Gul told Dawn on Wednesday that a girl, Qadir Gul, of Pakhturi Oveer went missing on August 27 from her home and her body was later recovered from a local river on Sept 3.

He said that relatives of the girl buried her before arrival of police to avoid post-mortem and told them that she had committed suicide by jumping into the river, but they could not explain circumstances related to the incident.

However, the police stressed for exhumation of the body to determine real cause of the girl’s death.

About the post-mortem report, a senior doctor of the DHQ hospital told this scribe that the girl’s skull was badly smashed, which caused her death.

The SHO said that a murder case would be initiated on the basis of the report, which proved that the girl was killed and her body thrown into water. The medical team also included two lady doctors.

Meanwhile, in a statement a local rights activist, Niaz A Niazi,  praised the local police for their efforts to establish the real cause of the girl’s death.