Pak forensic experts exhume anti-graft investigator's body

The body of a Pakistani anti-graft investigator who died in mysterious circumstances last month while probing corruption charges against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and other politicians has been exhumed and reburied after forensic experts examined it.

The body of National Accountability Bureau officer Kamran Faisal was reburied after forensic experts examined it at the graveyard in Khanewal district of Punjab province on Saturday.

The experts also took some samples that they said would be used to determine whether Faisal had committed suicide or was murdered.

A six-member team from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency supervised the exhumation after Faisal's father, Abdul Hamid, reluctantly gave permission for the body to be examined.

Rana Naseer Ahmed, head of the forensic team, said the body was exhumed for an "independent examination" following a controversy over the initial autopsy report.

Ahmed said the samples taken from Faisal's body would also be sent abroad for tests so that there were no doubts about the cause of death.

Faisal was found hanging from a fan in his room in a government hostel in Islamabad on January 18, three days after the Supreme Court directed NAB to arrest Prime Minister Ashraf and 16 others accused of taking bribes to clear the setting up of rental power projects.

NAB Chairman Fasih Bokhari subsequently told the court that he did not have adequate evidence to make any arrests.

Earlier this week, the apex court issued a notice for contempt of court to Bokhari after he complained to the president that the judiciary was interfering in NAB's investigations.

The initial autopsy report said Faisal had committed suicide but his family and colleagues disputed the findings.

They alleged he was being pressured was murdered.

Earlier, Faisal's father had refused to give permission for the exhumation of the body. He gave the go-ahead after police filed a request in a local magistrate's court to exhume the body.

Faisal's father said the sanctity of the grave and body should be maintained during the entire process and the body should be buried with a new shroud after the examination.