A medical board on Wednesday will exhume the body of Gul Sama, a 10-year-old girl who was allegedly stoned to death in Dadu, so that a post-mortem examination can be carried out.

The members of the board have proceeded to Wahi Pandhi area for exhumation, confirmed DIG Police Hyderabad range Naeem Shaikh today.

A four-member medical board, headed by the medical superintendent of Liaquat University Hospital city branch, was formed on Tuesday by Director General Health Services Dr Masood Solangi under judicial orders.

Following information that a girl had been stoned to death, Dadu police on Saturday arrested the parents of the 10-year-old victim and the maulvi who led her funeral prayers.

According to police, the incident occurred on the night between November 21 and 22 in the Kirthar mountain range of Dadu district, which borders the Balochistan province. Police also lodged a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ghulam Qadir Gopang under Sections 302, 201, 120-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Quoting the girl’s parents, the SSP said that the girl had died in an accident "due to landsliding on the mountain". The parents were living in an area called Shahi Makaan.

"Since the girl had been buried without a post-mortem examination and amidst charges of honour killing, the only way to get the body exhumed was an FIR, which was done so that the cause of her death could be determined. A post-mortem exam will certainly answer some questions," a senior official said.

DIG ascertaining facts

Police are still trying to find out whether a jirga was held and if it passed the order to stone the young girl to death. They are also looking into reports that the alleged jirga was chaired by the son of a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader.

DIG Naeem Shaikh told reporters on Tuesday that it is still premature to comment on the incident as investigations are underway.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, DIG Police Hyderabad range Naeem Shaikh and divisional commissioner Abbas Baloch met Gul's father Ali Bux Rind, who is in custody; Maulvi Mumtaz Leghari, the prayer leader who led Gul's funeral prayers and is also in custody; and the local community in Wahi Pandhi — an area in Johi taluka of the district — to verify facts of the incident.

The father insisted that his daughter died after slipping near a hilltop as a heavy stone fell on her while she was playing outside her house.

Ali Bux and his family have been living a nomadic life for a long time and shepherding livestock to make a living. He said he used to live on Khirthar mountain but shifted to Shahi Makan area a few years back.

"I don’t have a national identity card (NIC). I don’t know where I was born because my parents lived like nomads," he said in Brahavi, which was then translated by SHO Wahi Pandhi police station to Sindhi.

"Gul Sama was neither married nor engaged to anyone and I am not misleading [investigating officers]," he claimed.

Ali Bux’s wife Lilan Rind told a policewoman that Gul had died after a bone in her neck broke.

According to the local prayer leader Mumtaz Leghari, he was taken to Shahi Makan area by Taj Rustamani and Sami Rind, both nominated in the FIR, from Wahi Pandhi on the evening of November 21. He said he spent a night near a graveyard, where the family brought Gul's body for funeral prayers at around 8am the next morning.

"I didn’t see the girl’s body as Rinds observed pardah as per their ritual while laying her to rest and I didn’t insist [to see her body] either," he said.

Her funeral, he said, was attended by around a dozen persons.

The area where the Rinds were living was around 15 kilometres away from Wahi Pandhi town — 40km away from Dadu city in Khirthar hilly terrain.

Notables of Leghari, Rustamani and Jamali communities in Wahi Pandhi also met the officers. None of them could make a categorical statement about the veracity of the incident but urged the police to take the case to its logical end if it was indeed a case of honour killing.

They said they knew the Rinds were staying in the area and have livestock holdings.