A GLASGOW mother-of-two who died in Pakistan may have been throttled, according to Scotland's leading forensic pathologist.
Mumtaz Sattar, 38, lost her life in mysterious circumstances shortly after arriving in the Punjab with her husband Abdul early on Saturday morning.
Mr Sattar, who is under pressure to stay in Pakistan to answer questions about the death, said the couple had drunk spiked tea before they were thrown out of a taxi they caught from Lahore Airport.
However, a postmortem report carried out in Pakistan found that a bone in Mrs Sattar's neck, the hyoid, was fractured.
Professor Anthony Busuttil, of Edinburgh University, was asked by Glasgow solicitor Aamer Anwar, on behalf of the victim's family, to review the postmortem.
Mr Busuttil, speaking through Mr Anwar, said: "If the fracture were present at the time of death it would indicate forceful squeezing of the neck - ie throttling - which could have caused death."
They are awaiting further toxicology reports from Mrs Sattar, who was buried 14 hours after she died because, her husband said, there was no cold storage available to hold her remains.
Mr Busuttil is likely to ask further questions before preparing a full report on the death.
Mr Sattar said he and his wife took a taxi from outside the airport's security perimeter for the journey to Faisalabad, to visit relatives. He said they were given spiked tea in the town of Shahkot before being thrown out of the cab and robbed of passports and cash.
Mr Sattar, 45, who is originally from the Punjab, is said to have applied for emergency travel documents to leave Pakistan, but police are thought to want him to remain.
Police in Scotland are investigating reports of "domestic incidents" involving Mrs Sattar in Scotland and interviews are continuing.
Mr Anwar said: "There are a great number of questions that still need to be answered by Mr Sattar if his wife's killers are to be caught. Mr Sattar could find himself in serious trouble if he should make an attempt to return to the UK."
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