Fact-check: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has had a forensic laboratory since 2018

Twitter users claim that the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) does not have a single forensic science laboratory, to analyse evidence collected from the January 30 suicide bombing in Peshawar, which killed 100 people.

The claim is false.

Claim

“10 years of rule in KP,” said a February 1 tweet, “Not one city of KP has a safe city camera. Not one city of KP has a forensic lab where even DNA testing can be done.”

The tweet had been viewed over 13,000 views and liked more than 300 likes, at the time of writing.

“PTI failed to build a forensic lab in KP,” another user tweeted an identical claim on February 2.

Fact

The province does have a forensic science laboratory in its capital city, Peshawar, located at the Khyber Medical College. The laboratory was built in 2018 and it is equipped with DNA testing facilities.

“The department of forensic medicine and toxicology at Khyber Medical College has a forensic laboratory,” Attaullah Khan, the public relations officer at the healthcare department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Geo Fact Check over the phone.

While Dr. Hakim Khan Afridi, the chairman of the department, told Geo Fact Check that the laboratory was inaugurated in February 2018.

“We have analyzed a total of 460 cases and 11,000 samples till now,” Afridi said, “We have the facility for autopsy, post-mortem, sexual assault and all the things which come under the domain of forensics and toxicology.”

He further added that the laboratory has also been conducting DNA testing since 2018.

However, Afridi explained that some DNA samples are sent to the forensic laboratory in Punjab since the facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa does not have enough skilled experts, especially DNA analysts, and funds.

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