Initial post-mortem finds Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar’s ribs broken

Hyderabad: The Sindh High Court (SHC) Mirpurkhas bench on Monday heard the case of killing of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar who was allegedly killed by Umerkot policemen in custody over blasphemy allegations.

After exhumation of the deceased man’s body, the authorities presented a preliminary post-mortem report before the SHC. According to the report, the upper-left first rib, right scapula and lower-right four ribs of Dr Kunbhar were broken. The SHC was informed that the final report would be submitted after results of samples of other parts of the body came from laboratories in Islamabad and Karachi.

The Sindh health services director general had On October 3 formed a special medical board for the post-mortem of Dr Kunbhar on court orders. AMS Medico-Legal Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Hyderabad Dr Tahir Arain, LUMHS forensic expert Dr Waheed Nahiyan and pathologist Dr Raheel Khan were included in the board.

On October 15, a special medical board under the supervision of Umerkot Judicial Magistrate I Aamir Rajput exhumed the grave in village Jainro and took samples of 13 parts of the body.

A division bench of the SHC Mirpurkhas comprising Justice Amjad Bohiyo and Justice Khadim Hussain expressed anger at the failure of police officers to record statements. The bench asked how the statements of suspended DIG Javed Jaskani, suspended Mirpurkhas and Umerkot SSPs and CIA incharge Inayat Zardari would be recorded when they had not been arrested.

The petitioner, Ali Palh, told The News that police officers were not being arrested due to their influence. The high court observed it had no confidence in the Mirpurkhas police and handed over the investigations of the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

After the hearing, Palh told the media that under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022, the FIA would be supervised by the National Commission for Human Rights, which was a neutral body.

He added that it was for the first time that police were accused in a torture case and it was a victory for the people that fake encounters of police had been identified.

Agitation to continue

Meanwhile, the Sindh Rawadari March Action Committee held a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club and demanded that the report of the inquiry committee on the extrajudicial killing of Dr. Kunbhar be made public as soon as it was complete.

The committee also demanded that the doctors who took false oath of office and gave fake reports, the killers and those who instigated the murder be arrested The third demand was that the Sindh Assembly MPA from Umerkot who had congratulated the killers be sacked.

The fourth demand made by the Action Committee was stopping extrajudicial killings of citizens in Sindh over any reason. The committee said it believed that this entire system had become corrupt and a decisive fight against it was possible with the unity of people and Sindh-friendly political and social organisations. It announced that it would continue with agitation on the issue of the authorities’ failure to arrest Dr Kunbhar.

The participants said how the Sindh government attacked Sindh’s artistes and writers on October 13 outside the Karachi Press Club was shameful. They thanked everyone who had joined their protests.

The committee announced that if their demands were not accepted, they would go back to people on November 23 after uniting various political, social and intellectual voices of Sindh in Hyderabad.