Grisly find: Suspected mass grave discovered in Khuzdar

Law enforcement personnel cordon off the area, begin exhuming the bodies.

QUETTA:

Provincial authorities on Saturday discovered a suspected mass grave containing an unspecified number of bodies in Khuzdar district of Balochistan. Most of the bodies — which appear to be a month old — are decomposed beyond recognition.

“The Balochistan Levies received information about the presence of human remains in the Tutak area of Khuzdar,” Assistant Commissioner Afzal Sarpara told The Express Tribune. “A levies unit was sent to the area which found human remains.”



The Levies personnel searched the area and discovered a suspected mass grave. “There could be eight to nine bodies in the grave,” said Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Waheed Shah, adding that the law enforcement personnel had cordoned off the area and had begun exhuming the bodies.

Balochistan Levies official Gulam Nabi said two bodies were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ).

“The bodies are decomposed beyond recognition. DNA tests can help identify them,” he told The Express Tribune. Medics at the DHQ said the bodies were a month old and have been partly mauled by wild animals.Deputy Commissioner Shah said that they would dig around for more human remains at the mass grave site on Sunday.

“We do not know who they are and who killed them,” he said of the bodies. “It’s inhuman. We have started investigations.”

Relatives of the missing persons speculated that the bodies could be of their loved ones.



“We fear these bodies are of the missing persons. The superior judiciary and rights activists should press the government to carry out a transparent investigation,” said Nasrullah Baloch, the chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons.

Khuzdar is one of the worst militancy-wracked districts of Balochistan where a deteriorating security situation has forced several families to migrate to safer areas.


Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2014.