25 bodies handed over to heirs after DNA identification

KARACHI:

The bodies of 20 victims of the Kathore Link Road accident were handed over to their families on Thursday, after their identification through the DNA tests.

As many as 62 people were burned alive when the Shikarpur-bound Geo al-Shoaib Coach collided with a tanker on January 11. The victims had been burned beyond recognition.

According to sources, the identification of 25 victims was successfully completed, however, only 20 of the victims’ heirs showed up at the Edhi morgue to receive them.

Sources said that the samples taken for the DNA were not sent to the National Forensic Science Agency as it delays the process. “The samples were sent to a private laboratory in Islamabad and the provincial government bore the expenses,” claimed a health official.

The provincial authorities, meanwhile, came under the flak once again as they had not made any arrangements for the bodies to be transported with the families. Only after media personnel started reporting the mismanagement, did the provincial government send officials to the spot.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.