LAHORE  -   A girl student of a private university was found dead in hostel room in Johar Town on early Thursday. Her body was moved to morgue for autopsy. 

Police indentified the deceased as 20-year-old Rozina, a resident of Sialkot. Rozina, a medical student in Lahore, was residing in a private hostel located in Faisal Garden of Johar Town.

Her roommate Arooj phoned police as she saw her body lying on the sofa, a policeman said, adding she returned from her hometown last night and she knocked the door repeatedly but Rozina did not respond. When Arooj opened the door with a duplicate key, she saw the body of her roommate lying on the sofa. Arooj also told the police that Rozina was a ‘drug addict’.

“Apparently, the girl died from drug abuse. There were no torture or injury marks on her body. (However), the needle marks were visible on her arms,” a police investigator said after visiting the crime scene and examining the body.

According to another police official Rashid Hayat, forensic experts also seized “white-powder” wrapped in a Rs10 currency note from the room.

“The final opinion will be given in the light of medico-legal report. But forensic experts believe the cause of death was overdose of drugs,” Saddar Investigation SP Hayat explained.  The drug death was reported a few weeks after Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry revealed that the use of ‘ice-drugs’ among students was on the rise.  The federal government has ordered a crackdown on peddlers at educational institutions. Several arrests have been made in the big cities since the police launched the crackdown. But, the authorities have failed to check supply of drugs or narcotics to the students at educational institutions.

In February, a girl of a private university died in a similar incident in Raiwind. Hifsa Irfan was a resident of Faisalabad. The first semester student was studying at the Superior University and she had been living at a hostel near Arraiyan Village.

According to her roommate Mahak, Hifsa was busy at the laptop when she went to sleep in the afternoon. However, when she got up later and asked Hifsa to wake up for the dinner she did not respond. The girl made hue and cry and called in other students.

Then, Hifsa was rushed to a hospital located inside the Superior University where she was pronounced as brought dead. The police had shifted her to the Jinnah Hospital’s morgue for autopsy. According to police, there were no torture marks or injury on the body of Hifsa.

The police had handed over Hifsa’s body to her parents without autopsy.

An official said that the victim family had refused to initiate any legal proceedings. Therefore, the family left for their hometown for burial as police handed them over the body after legal formalities. The lady doctor (who examined the body) stated that there was no kind of bodily harm, or injury.