A newlywed 18-year-old woman was found dead in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area on Monday, prompting police to detain her relatives for interrogation, officials said on Tuesday. South Deputy Inspector General Syed Asad Raza reported that the girl, married to a government employee posted at Malir Cantonment, was discovered on the rooftop of a building in Badar Commercial, Phase 5, with a dupatta knotted twice around her neck.
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The girl was first taken to a private clinic in DHA and later to a hospital in Clifton, where she was pronounced dead. Her body was subsequently transferred to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for legal proceedings. According to DIG Raza, the couple had recently arrived in Karachi from Sialkot and were living at an aunt’s house in the area.
Details from the investigation indicate that the girl went to the rooftop on Monday evening and did not return. Her aunt found her unconscious near a water tank with her neck tied and immediately contacted her son before rushing the girl to the hospital. The deceased girl’s father, also a government employee, alleged that his daughter had been strangled.
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Authorities have detained the sons of the aunt, who are considered suspects in the case, for questioning. Police are awaiting the final report from doctors to confirm the cause of death.
Dr Summaiya Syed, police surgeon at JPMC, told Dawn that there are “strong suspicions about sexual violence” and that all necessary samples have been collected. She confirmed that the cause of death was constriction of the neck.