Foul play: Body exhumed

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

The body of a youth was exhumed by police on Sunday to ascertain facts of his death.

Bhowana SHO said Kashif Ali had gone missing from Lahore’s Factory Area on January 9.

He said his relatives had filed a missing persons report with the Factory Area police.

“Lahore police traced his mobile phone and approached Bhowana police, saying that Kashif’s cell phone was being used by Muhammad Asif in Mangeni village.”

He said the police raided Asif’s house and arrested him.

During interrogation, Asif confessed that he had been given Rs200,000 and the mobile phone by a certain Dr Chaudhary to bury a body secretly. He said the body was wrapped in a hospital coverlet and packed in a sack. He said he had buried the body in a graveyard in Chak 188-JB.

The SHO said Asif led them to the grave. He said it was dug up under the supervision of Magistrate Ziaur Rehman.

He said Kashif’s family identified the body from his feet and hair. He said some chemical had been sprayed on the body before burial to make identification difficult.

Investigation officer Nazeer Uppal said Kashif was kidnapped by kidney theft mafia. He said his wounds showed that both his kidneys had been removed. He said the wounds were not even stitched closed before the body was buried.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2014.