Homicide: Mystery shrouds murder of 8 persons

The mutilated bodies were spotted by commuters, dumped behind an abandoned fuel station some 10 km from Attock.

ISLAMABAD:

Mystery shrouds the gruesome murder of eight people as the police have not yet made any breakthrough or found any clue about the murderers or the victims. The mutilated bodies were spotted by commuters, dumped behind an abandoned fuel station some 10 kilometres from Attock on Haji Shah Road, who informed the Attock Khurd police.

The police shifted the bodies to district headquarters hospital for autopsy where they remained unidentified till the filing of this report.

The Attock Khurd police suspected that they might have been murdered somewhere else and their bodies were later dumped at the deserted site, away from city. They appeared to be some three to four days old, but time of death will only be confirmed once the postmortem are completed.

Police said all of them have died of strangulation as no wounds were found on their bodies. Two of them appeared to be in their early twenties while the other six were in their early thirties. Police were waiting for the postmortem reports to ascertain the exact causes of their deaths.

The police officials investigating the case told The Express Tribune by phone that the bodies have apparently been transported to the dumping site in vehicles as there were deep tyre tracks in the mud near the dump site.

“There is a possibility that two vehicles were used to transport the bodies to the site from where they were recovered. We had found tracks on both sides of the petrol pump. Four bodies were lying on one side of the pump, while the remaining four were lying on the other side,” said a police official.

He said the dump site was carefully selected by the assailants, noting that the abandoned pump has a high back wall. “Once behind those walls, it was difficult for passersby to see the vehicles and the subsequent unloading and dumping of bodies,” he noted.

Moreover, the bodies were dumped during the rain, when few people venture outdoors and visibility is reduced.

All of the eight men sported beards, had old clothes on and were barefoot. Police found no identifying documents or other belongings on the bodies. They suspect the men were not locals. The apparent intention of the killers was to confuse the police and to keep the crime hidden for as much time as they could gain.

The Attock Khurd police said details about the bodies had been released to the media to trace their families and establish their identities. However, they were still lying in the hospital as police waited for postmortem reports to formally register a case and launch investigations.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2011.