



The body of a teenaged girl who was allegedly killed in the name of honour was exhumed by a medical team on Saturday after the divisional bench of the Peshawar High Court ordered a re-investigation into the case.





The inquiry team, which included two medical officers, was headed by judicial magistrate Rashid Rauf Swati.Rehnaz Bibi, 13, was allegedly shot dead by one of her cousins in September 2010. According to reports, Bibi left home to convince the boy she liked to marry her without her family’s consent. However, she was sent back home by his family, who lived in the same village, with the promise to send a proposal for her later.When her family found out about the incident, her father, who was in Karachi at that time, allegedly asked one of his nephews to kill her.According to an application filed in Haripur district and sessions court by a local activist Qamar Hayat, Rehnaz was fired at with an AK-47 and received 30 bullets. Her family had termed her death as an accident.The petitioner claims the police closed the case and allegedly concealed facts pertaining to her murder.Hayat and other social activists requested an inquiry and postmortem of the victim, upon which Haripur District and Sessions Judge Shaibar Khan ordered the area magistrate to conduct an inquiry through a medical board. However, the victim’s parents obtained a stay order from the court’s divisional bench.Later, after hearing both sides of the case, the court ordered a re-investigation by an honest and competent DSP. The court also ordered to submit a report within 30 days.Upon court’s orders, the judicial magistrate, along with DSP Headquarters Tariq Khan, DSP Investigations Haifz Janas Khan, medical officer Dr Saba Noreen and Dr Javed exhumed the body and an autopsy was conducted. The postmortem report and the inquiry’s findings are expected to be sent to the divisional bench within the next few days.Published in The Express Tribune, January 22, 2012.