Two young women suspected of petty theft die in Lahore police custody

LAHORE: Two young women, suspected of stealing a small amount of cash and gold jewellery from a house, later died in the police custody under mysterious circumstances here on Tuesday.

The women were brought to the Township police station when a local resident accused them of stealing money and gold ornaments from his house. However, one of them was later shifted to Lytton Road police station.

As per initial reports, health condition of both women worsened in police custody owing to reasons yet to be ascertained.

The suspects were shifted to different hospitals, where doctors declared them “received dead,” adding to the concern of police authorities as they were already facing an odd situation following the alleged rape of a mentally challenged girl by a police official inside a police station in Ghaziabad on Tuesday.

DIG claims the suspects died of drug overdose

The complainant, Zeeshan Latif, alleged in the FIR that the women entered his house and asked his wife for water. He said when his wife went to fetch water, the suspects stole her gold ornaments and Rs5,000 cash from the house.

He said that as the women were caught red-handed, locals gathered there, thrashed them and then handed them over to the police.

A spokesperson for the investigation police late on Tuesday made it clear that the women died in the custody of the operations wing police as was evident from the call made by them (officials of the operations wing) to the Rescue 1122 to shift them to hospitals.

Operations DIG Faisal Kamran told Dawn that one of the suspects fainted in Township police station, while the other in Lytton Road police station. He said both women were immediately rushed to hospitals, where they were pronounced dead by the attending doctors.

To a question, he said that the Township police had lodged an FIR against the suspects around 4:50pm. He said that one of the suspects was shifted to the Lytton Road police station, to hand her over to women police officials for further investigation, while the other was still in the custody of Township police.

The DIG strongly denied the allegations that the women were tortured or treated harshly in custody.

“As per initial inquiry reports, both were chronic drug addicts,” Kamran said, claiming the health condition of the women was compromised due to probable drug overdose, when they were handed over to the operations police.

The incident still required a high level inquiry to dig out facts as the death of two women in custody must not be ignored under any circumstances, he added.

He said the police officials are in contact with the doctors of the concerned hospitals in order to get the postmortem examination of the bodies conducted as soon as possible.

To another question, the DIG said the police have obtained video clips showing the women after they were caught by the area residents. He said a video recording also showed one of the women being questioned by a police official. The video shows the woman asking the policeman to arrange narcotics for her, he added.

The DIG said that more details would be shared with the media once investigations into the incident are finalised.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2026