The Sindh government on Friday constituted a four-member medical board for the exhumation and post-mortem analysis of a young girl in the Ranipur taluka of Khairpur district.

According to reports, 10-year-old Fatima, employed as a domestic maid at a haveli owned by local influential Pir Asad Shah — who is now in custody — was found dead under mysterious circumstances earlier this week.

Subsequently, a case was lodged on the complaint of Fatima’s mother, Shamim Khatoon, under sections 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at Ranipur police station and an investigation was initiated.

On Aug 17, Khair­pur police arrested a key suspect in the case, who was later remanded into police custody.

Khairpur Senior Superintendent of Police Rohail Khoso told Dawn that Station House Officer (SHO) Ameer Ali Chang, Dr Fatah Memon (a health department employee) and a compounder were also detained for interrogation in the case.

A day earlier, a civil judge of Sobhodero town directed the director general of the health services, Sindh, to set up a medical team for the exhumation of the body, which was buried in Khan Wah graveyard in Naushahro Feroz district.

According to a notification issued by the Sindh health services department today, the special medical board will be headed by the medical superintendent of the People’s Medical College (PMC) Hospital Nawabshah.

The board also comprises a pathology professor from PMC Hospital Nawabshah, a forensic expert from Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences For Women and a woman medical officer at the Naushahro Feroz District Health Office.

The notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, ordered the police surgeon at the PMC Hospital Nawabshah to fix a date for the exhumation as soon as possible.

Separately, former climate change minister Sherry Rehman said she was intimated about action taken in the case against those involved and the post-mortem proceedings being pursued.

“Whether it was those who tortured her, falsified medical reports or the SHO who recorded false statements, all allowed zero impunity,” she said in a post on social media platform X.

SHRC finds serious lacunas in FIR

Meanwhile, the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has found serious lacunas in the case’s FIR and called for incorporation in the case of sections of relevant laws about child protection and bonded labour.

SHRC chairperson Iqbal Detho took suo motu notice of the widely reported incident about the girl’s death in mysterious circumstances. The FIR had been registered under sections 302 and 34 PPC and the commission noted that relevant sections like 370 and 374 PPC dealing with forced labour and torture have not been applied deliberately, he said.

These sections included 4 (1) (2) of the Sindh Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 2015, sections 3 and 14 of the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017; sections 2 (a-i) and 17 of the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011, he said.

He directed SSP to take legal course regarding allegations of torture and conduct a fair and transparent enquiry into the murder. If the case under the above offences was made out during investigation then these sections should be incorporated in the FIR as per law without fear or favour in the larger interest of human rights.

He fixed the matter for hearing on Aug 21 and said an officer now below the rank of deputy superintendent of police should appear before him along with a report.

The case

The girl’s father Nadeem Ali Phariro had initially claimed that the girl was afflicted by some stomach-related ailment, as indicated by doctors when she was taken to a private hospital on the night of Aug 14-15.

Later, the girl died in her house after having been discharged from hospital.

Claims about her death transpiring as a result of torture came to the fore when videos of a girl bearing torture marks went viral. It was not known who leaked the videos. These videos were obtained by the police team, which also met some social activists from the area.

The haveli belongs to a family commonly known in Khairpur district as Pir of Ranipur.

After the videos went viral in the district, police took notice of the matter and DSP Qudoos Kalwar met the girl’s parents. Following his meeting with social activists and going through viral videos, the DSP reported to the DIG that the matter was serious and demanded the exhumation of the body.