Dr Maha laid to rest as police yet to solve mystery behind her death

The investigators probing the death of doctor Syeda Maha, whose body was found in a washroom of her house, remains clueless given the mystery behind the apparent suicide case in Karachi’s posh locality is yet to be resolved.

The post-mortem report has found that a bullet was fired at her from a close range and police have written a letter to the authorities concerned for verification of the pistol used in the incident on Thursday.

Police say the investigations are at a preliminary level. “Nothing could be said exactly. It is yet to be ascertained if it was a murder or a suicide,” says Gizri SHO Pervez Methani. According to the investigators, the post-mortem report found that a bullet was fired from a close range. The officer said a Brazil-made 9mm pistol was used and police had sent the bullet and the spent casing for forensic examination and ballistics cross-matching.

Police have also approached the South deputy commissioner for the verification of the pistol. Police said a case would be registered if it was confirmed that the woman was murdered.

Though the deceased’s family has refused to initiate any legal proceedings into the matter, police on Thursday went to the victim’s hometown Mirpurkhas, where the deceased was laid to rest, to record the statements of the family members and relatives. The victim was the daughter of the custodian of a saint’s shrine famous as Girhori Sharif in Mirpurkhas.

SHO Methani said police had examined the cell phone records of the deceased and were questioning her friends. “The main challenge for us is to find out from where the deceased got a weapon,” says the officer.

Late Tuesday night, Syeda Maha was found dead in the Defence Housing Authority after reportedly developing differences with her father. The family in their initial statement had told police Maha locked herself in the washroom and committed suicide by shooting. She was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre with critical injury to head. Doctors said her brain cells were damaged in the incident as the bullet pierced through her head.

According to police, the victim was unmarried and recently rented a house in the Defence area. She hailed from Mirpurkhas and was living with her parents and younger siblings – two sisters and a brother. She was said to have had a verbal fight with her father before her death.