A Karachi University laboratory on basis of samples sent from actor Humaira Asghar’s body came to the conclusion that there were no traces of sedative or toxic substance in it, raising a strong possibility that the medico-legal section will likely to declare it as a “natural death”, it emerged on Friday according to a report and police officials.
A police investigative report released on Wednesday found that the evidence so far indicated that the actor’s death — whose body was discovered in a Karachi apartment on July 8 — was accidental or due to natural causes.
“No traces of any sedative, psychiatric, narcotics or any poisonous substances are found,” according to the contents of the report prepared by experts associated with the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences of Karachi University (KU) and obtained by Dawn.com.
The Gizri police had sent the samples of the 42-year-old actor’s hair, lung and liver collected by Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Doctor Bakhtawar Khan on July 8. The KU lab performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) technique to analyse the said samples, the report said.
Karachi South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza confirmed that the police have received the report of the late actor’s body samples.
The senior officer hinted at the possibility that medico-legal officers and doctors would likely call it a “natural death”.
The South DIG said the investigators have also obtained the “medical history of the late actor from a private hospital in Clifton in the recent past”.
South-DIG Raza said that investigators have also received a DNA report from Sindh Forensic DNA and Serology Laboratory at the KU. Sharing findings of the forensic lab, the senior officer said the report stated that there was a “human blood on a stain section taken from shirt and trousers of Humaira Asghar.”
However, the DIG said it was a “meager amount of blood that might have been caused by biting insects.” He said as per concerned procedure, the MLOs and doctors would determine the exact cause of death in light of these findings of the both labs of the KU.
He said the police would submit the reports to the doctors and they expected that they would give their final version about cause of death on Monday.
Humaira was laid to rest in the Model Town Q Block graveyard in Lahore last week following a sparsely-attended funeral.
Earlier in the month, police formed a special investigation team to probe the actor’s death, whose body was found in a Karachi apartment on July 8.
The notification calling for the formation of the investigation team had directed them to inquire into the facts and thoroughly investigate the death of Humaira to ascertain the cause of death, whether natural, accidental, suicidal or murder, by utilising all available resources and submit a progress report to the SSP’s office on a daily basis.
An autopsy report by police surgeon Summaiya Syed had confirmed that the body was in an “advanced stage of decomposition” and at least eight months old.
The autopsy report was released to the police, but the coroner could not determine the actor’s cause of death due to the level of decomposition.
Besides being a theatre, film and TV artist, Humera was also a visual artist who studied at Punjab University’s Fine Arts Department and completed a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting. During her university days, she had interaction with theatre groups such as Natak, led by Dr Ahmed Bilal, which was a university-based theatre group consisting of students.
She had interactions with Amjad Islam Amjad, Qavi Khan and other senior actors who used to visit the university for lectures. In her early years of performing arts, she did about four or five Pakistan television plays. She also extensively did socially relevant and objective theatre those days.