August 17, 2026
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
A fact-finding mission by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has raised serious questions about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two young women, Amina and Anmol, who died after being taken into police custody at Lahore’s Township Police Station on August 4.
HRCP says the available evidence does not establish how or why the two women died, but identifies a series of unresolved discrepancies — including the near-simultaneous collapse of the women, conflicting accounts of injuries to their bodies, incomplete CCTV footage, questions over the handling of their remains, the absence of women police officers at the station and delays in obtaining post-mortem findings.
The report, titled Deaths in Police Custody in Lahore, was published on August 16, 2026 following a fact-finding mission conducted from August 11 to 13. The mission was tasked with reconstructing the events leading to the women’s arrest and deaths, examining allegations of torture and ill-treatment, assessing whether legal safeguards were followed and identifying institutional failures.
The report does not conclude that the women were tortured or killed by police. Instead, it says the evidence currently available is insufficient to establish the cause or manner of death and that the discrepancies surrounding the case warrant an independent investigation.
According to the police timeline presented by Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana, the incident began when a complainant called emergency helpline 15 at 2:54pm on August 4 to report an alleged theft.
The arresting sub-inspector arrived at the scene at 3:11pm and took Amina and Anmol into custody. They reached Township Police Station at 3:26pm and were handed over to the duty clerk of the operations wing.
The complainant arrived at the station at 4pm, while his application was submitted and e-tagged at 4:39pm. An FIR was registered at 4:50pm.
Women collapsed within minutes of being handed to investigators
At 5:20pm, custody was formally transferred from the operations wing to investigation staff.
The police timeline records that the women were then handed over to the duty clerk at 5:30pm. At 5:48pm, one woman collapsed, followed shortly afterwards by the other.
A sub-inspector called Rescue 1122 at 6:03pm, reporting that their condition had deteriorated. Rescue personnel arrived six minutes later.
The bodies were brought to Jinnah Hospital at 7pm and recorded as having been received dead.
The HRCP mission identifies the timing of the deaths as one of the central unresolved questions in the case.
It notes that the women had appeared healthy and functional shortly before their deaths, and that their collapse occurred rapidly after they were handed over to the investigation team. The mission says the near-simultaneous deaths of two young women who had reportedly shown no obvious physical distress beforehand require further scrutiny.
Police accounts over interrogation raise questions
A police investigation representative told the HRCP that the women had not really been interrogated because they lost consciousness within 15 to 20 minutes of being handed over to the investigation team.
The representative also said CCTV footage showed one of the women admitting to using injections.
However, when the mission asked about the standard practice of recording interrogations, the representative said interrogations were “definitely” recorded. When asked whether Amina and Anmol’s interrogation had therefore been recorded, he again said that police had not had time to conduct an inquiry and referred the mission back to the operations wing.
The mission says it was not given the complete CCTV footage covering the women’s entire period in custody.
While publicly circulating footage appeared to show nothing overtly untoward, the HRCP said the footage was incomplete and therefore could not establish what happened throughout the women’s detention.
The mission also noted an apparent contradiction: police said interrogations were definitely recorded on CCTV, while simultaneously maintaining that no interrogation had taken place because the women lost consciousness within 15 to 20 minutes of being transferred to investigators.
HRCP has recommended that the complete and unedited CCTV footage from the women’s arrival at the station until their collapse be preserved and handed to an independent judicial tribunal.
It has also called for an explanation of how portions of the footage reached the media.
Dispute over whether the women suffered injuries
One of the most significant contradictions identified by the HRCP concerns the physical condition of the bodies.
The women’s families told the mission that when they identified the bodies at Jinnah Hospital, they observed dried blood on Amina’s face, a bruise on her wrist, bruising on Anmol’s face and torn clothing. The family subsequently suspected that the women may have been sexually assaulted, although the report makes clear that they provided no evidence substantiating that suspicion.
The official medical and judicial accounts, however, recorded no such injuries.
The inquest report, interim post-mortem reports and judicial magistrate’s inquiry all recorded no marks or bruises on the bodies.
The HRCP describes the contradiction as significant, saying the family’s account of visible injuries is difficult to reconcile with the official record.
The organisation does not resolve the discrepancy in favour of either account.
Instead, it says the circumstances surrounding the bodies and their handling meant that very few people outside state authorities and the medical board had an opportunity to independently observe them.
Family says police pressured them after the deaths
The families also alleged that they were subjected to pressure by police following the deaths.
According to the report, the family was summoned to Township Police Station on August 5 and initially believed Amina and Anmol were alive and would be released.
Anmol’s mother alleged that police coerced her into recording a video describing the two women as drug addicts, allegedly because she believed doing so could help secure their release on bail.
The family was subsequently taken to Green Town Police Station, where they were given an FIR relating to another case which they said had no apparent connection to Amina and Anmol or the theft allegations for which they had been detained.
They were reportedly told to arrange a lawyer so the women could be released on bail the following day.
The family said they later learned that the women had died.
They also alleged that a police official asked a family member to sign the medical report despite the family not understanding its contents. They said they were subsequently not provided the bodies and later faced threats of being booked in multiple cases when they sought information about the post-mortem report.
The HRCP says these allegations raise concerns over whether the family was subjected to pressure or intimidation while seeking answers about the deaths.
The police have denied allegations of mistreatment.
Police escorted bodies to Pakpattan with more than a dozen vehicles
The handling and burial of the bodies is another aspect of the case that the HRCP has questioned.
The family said they were not permitted to perform ghusl, the ritual washing of the bodies before burial. According to their account, medical staff at Jinnah Hospital performed the washing under police supervision, with officers reportedly warning that allowing the family to touch the bodies would “create issues.”
The police then transported the bodies from Lahore to Pakpattan, where the families lived.
According to the family, the police convoy consisted of at least 10 to 12 vehicles and an ambulance. The convoy reached Pakpattan between approximately 10pm and midnight on August 6, while the family arrived between 2am and 3am on August 7.
The family said police pressed for an immediate burial, initially proposing 3am. Following objections, the burial was eventually held at approximately 6am.
The family also said police excluded them from the grave-digging process and supervised the burial.
The HRCP subsequently obtained independent confirmation from three sources — two crime reporters and an HRCP member who had spoken to residents of Pakpattan — that police maintained a presence at the gravesite and restricted access to it for several days after the burial.
Police attributed the extensive escort to concerns about possible law-and-order problems arising from custodial deaths.
The HRCP, however, says police have not adequately explained why such a high level of security was considered necessary.
The mission has also questioned why the bodies were not simply handed over to their legal heirs for burial.
Police drug-use claim not supported by sufficient evidence, report says
Police initially described the women as drug users with criminal records.
The CCPO later clarified that reports saying police had established that the women died because of “drug addiction” were inaccurate. He said drug use had been considered a possibility based on statements allegedly made by the women during interrogation and syringe marks found on one woman’s arm.
However, a police official who spoke to the HRCP mission was more categorical, telling investigators that police could say with “100 percent” confidence that the women were drug addicts who used injections.
The mission says no medical or documentary evidence was provided to substantiate that assertion.
The complainant who had accused the women of theft also told the mission that he had observed no signs of drug use or intoxication. He described one of the women as talkative, assertive and lucid.
The interim post-mortem findings recorded needle-prick marks on Amina’s forearm but not on Anmol’s.
Three independent medical experts consulted by HRCP differed in their interpretation of the marks, with one considering them indicative of long-term intravenous drug use. The report stresses, however, that this finding must be assessed alongside complete toxicological and post-mortem evidence.
The mission says it found no evidence establishing that either woman was visibly under the influence of drugs during the hours immediately preceding her death.
Interim post-mortems cannot establish cause of death
The medical evidence itself remains inconclusive.
The interim post-mortem reports recorded abnormalities involving the lungs, heart and brain of both women, including congestion of the brain, blackish or mottled lungs and clots in the heart.
But the three independent medical experts consulted by HRCP said these findings were largely non-specific and could have multiple explanations.
Brain congestion, for example, could potentially be associated with post-mortem changes, head trauma or asphyxiation, while changes in the lungs can occur naturally during the post-mortem process and cannot by themselves establish drug use, poisoning or another cause of death.
The experts said histopathological examination of tissue and toxicological analysis were required to determine whether the findings were pathological or trauma-related and to establish the cause and manner of death.
The final post-mortem findings remained pending at the time of the HRCP investigation.
The mission notes that the interim reports only became available on August 11 — seven days after the deaths — and that histopathological and toxicological results were still awaited.
Why did both post-mortems contain almost identical findings?
HRCP also highlights the unusual similarity between the two interim post-mortem reports. Both women were recorded as 25 years old, although documentation obtained by the mission reportedly showed Amina’s year of birth as 2008.
Both reports recorded clots in the heart, blackish or mottled lungs and congestion of the brain. The principal difference was that Amina’s report recorded needle-prick marks on her forearm, while no such marks were recorded in Anmol’s report. The report says the ages of the women themselves remain unresolved.
Media accounts initially reported them as 18 and 20, while later post-mortem material identified them as 17 and 22. The available documentation therefore does not conclusively establish that both women were adults when they died.
HRCP says this is particularly significant because additional legal safeguards apply to persons in police custody depending on their age.
Absence of women police officers
The mission also raised concerns over the fact that there were no women police officers at Township Police Station on the day of the incident.
Police staff told HRCP that female personnel normally posted at the station had been deployed elsewhere for security duties during Urs festivities.
The HRCP considers this significant because Pakistani law provides specific safeguards concerning the detention and interrogation of women in police custody.
The report specifically cites Section 167(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, under which an investigating police officer must interrogate a female accused in prison in the presence of a jail officer and a female police officer.
The mission recommends that safeguards for women in custody be strengthened, including mandatory presence of women officers, compliance with legal requirements governing arrest and interrogation, and mandatory tamper-proof video recording of interrogations.
Police did not provide HRCP access to key evidence
The fact-finding mission encountered several difficulties obtaining information from police and other state institutions. At Township Police Station, the SHO and investigation in-charge were not present during the mission’s visits.
A sub-inspector contacted by the team declined to discuss the case, while the investigation in-charge did not respond to repeated calls. A police investigation-wing representative eventually spoke to the mission by telephone. The mission also sought Rescue 1122 records because they could potentially provide an independent account of the timing of the emergency call, dispatch, arrival of responders and the condition in which the women were found.
Although Rescue 1122 confirmed that it maintains a digital record of emergency calls, including dispatch and arrival times, it did not provide the requested records despite repeated attempts by HRCP. The HRCP has consequently recommended that the police timeline be independently checked against call logs, custody registers, Rescue 1122 records and other documentary evidence.
Questions also surround the original theft case
The women had been detained after a local resident accused them of stealing earrings and money.
According to the complainant’s FIR, he accused the women of stealing earrings and PKR 5,000 from a family member on August 4. The complainant told HRCP that the women entered his house on the pretext of asking for water, asked for money and allegedly used a “hypnotic spell” to leave his sister-in-law frozen and compliant before taking her earrings.
He claimed that the women later returned the earrings after neighbours apprehended them. He also told the mission that PKR 35,000 had been stolen, although the FIR recorded PKR 5,000 — a discrepancy he did not explain. The complainant rejected media reports portraying him as a police “tout” who repeatedly files cases to assist police in targeting individuals.
HRCP obtained Criminal Record Office data that supported his account that he had filed three FIRs, rather than the eight reportedly attributed to him in media coverage.
Families lived in extreme poverty
The socioeconomic circumstances of the two women were poor – the families live in an urban slum in Kela Colony, in Chungi Amar Sadhu, an industrial zone in Lahore, where the mission observed open drains, accumulated waste, substandard housing and a lack of basic utilities.
According to relatives, Amina and Anmol left home at around 8am on August 4 to work, as they did most days.
They performed part-time domestic work and sold pencils in Township, Ichra and Mozang, earning approximately 400 to 500 rupees per day. A portion of Amina’s earnings contributed to the medical expenses of her disabled father.
Anmol was reportedly the only daughter of her mother and had a four-month-old breastfeeding daughter, Fajr.
Official account cannot currently be relied upon as complete: HRCP
In its conclusion, HRCP says the combined discrepancies raise substantial questions about whether the official account provides a full and accurate record of what happened.
The organisation points specifically to the near-simultaneous collapse of the two women shortly after they were handed to investigators, the contradiction between the family’s account of injuries and official medical records, the similarities in the two post-mortem reports and the extensive police presence during and after the burial.
The report says these are not isolated irregularities but a pattern extending from the women’s arrest through their detention, deaths, post-mortem process and burial.
At the same time, the HRCP does not claim that these discrepancies prove police responsibility for the deaths.
Rather, it says the existing material is insufficient to resolve them and that the case requires an investigation with powers beyond the mechanisms currently being used.
Call for judicial tribunal and exhumation
The organisation has called on the Punjab government to establish a judicial tribunal headed by a sitting Lahore High Court judge to investigate the women’s arrest, detention and deaths.
The proposed tribunal should have the powers of a civil court to summon witnesses, including police officers of all ranks, and compel the production of documents and records. HRCP wants its findings published in full within a fixed timeframe.
Most significantly, the HRCP has recommended that the bodies of Amina and Anmol be exhumed and examined by independent forensic and medical experts who have no affiliation with police or other agencies involved in the case.
The examination should include histopathological and toxicological analysis to establish a credible cause of death.
The organisation has further called for:
- preservation and production of the complete CCTV footage;
- independent verification of the police timeline through call records, custody registers and Rescue 1122 records;
- protection of the families from intimidation or threats of prosecution;
- legal aid for the families so they can participate in proceedings;
- mandatory presence of women police officers when women are detained or interrogated; and
- mandatory, tamper-proof video recording of interrogations, with clear accountability for breaches.
The report notes that Pakistan’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022 provides the applicable statutory framework if the concerns surrounding the women’s deaths are substantiated. HRCP says mechanisms under that law should be used alongside, rather than instead of, the judicial investigation it has recommended.
The central finding of the HRCP mission is therefore not that the deaths have been proven to be custodial killings, but that the existing evidence does not adequately explain how two young women, reportedly functioning normally shortly before their detention, collapsed and died within minutes of each other while in police custody — and that the multiple unanswered questions surrounding their detention, medical examination, CCTV record and burial demand an independent investigation.