A teenage domestic helper was found hanged inside a home in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on Saturday, with police and medical officials

The officials said Fatima, 17, was found hanged inside a bungalow located on Khayaban-e-Badban in DHA's Phase-V.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Clifton Dr Asad Malhi told Dawn that the deceased had been working as a maid in the residence.

She had been living on the first floor of the house while her employers, a couple, resided on the ground floor.

She did not turn up in the morning to the lower floor as per her routine, and one of her employers found her hanging by a ceiling fain her room.

Her corpse was shifted to the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Dr Malhi said that, from the facts, it appeared to be a suicide case. However, he added that the police were still investigating the case from every possible angle.

The owner of the property, Syed Hasan Mazhar, said in his statement that the girl generally tended to wake up at around 11:30am. He said they had installed a bell on the first floor of the house where she lived and she tended to wake up with the bell.

Mazhar, who works at a cement factory located on Super Highway, said that he had been getting late for work on Saturday and had left home in his car in a hurry. He had travelled only a short distance when he received a phone call from his wife saying that she had gone to the first floor of the house and found the girl hanging from the ceiling fan.

The owner said he returned home, informed police about the incident and shifted the body to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination.

The post-mortem examination was carried out by Medico-Legal Officer Dr Noorunisa Channa.

The doctor, in her initial report, termed the incident a suicide as there were no apparent injury marks on the girl's body, a police officer said.

However, the doctor had reserved the cause of death pending the histopathological and chemical examiner’s report.

Meanwhile, Gizri police station officer, Abdul Latif in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, said that the deceased’s father, Abdul Haq, had said that his daughter has been working at the home for the last two years and had never complained about her employers.

Latif added that the father, in his formal statement to the police, had not levelled any allegations against the employers.

Family members of the teenager have begun protesting outside the Gizri police station, alleging that the cause of death was murder, not suicide.

They claim police are not allowing them to register a first information report (FIR) regarding the case.

SSP South Javed Akbar Riaz, however, said: "Police have no objections to registering and FIR, but it should be based on facts."