KARACHI, May 20: The medical board which had conducted the post-mortem examination of the exhumed body parts, believed to be of Daniel Pearl, submitted its findings to the investigation officer on Monday.

According to the findings of the report, the body’s skin colour was white, sources told Dawn.

The body parts were exhumed from a vacant plot in Ahsanabad, Gulshan-i-Maymar, in Gadap town on May 17.

Sources said that according to the findings of the report the body had deformity in the left foot.

Moreover, a metal tooth was missing from the upper jaw of the body, sources said and added that the post-mortem report also indicated presence of a piece of shirt from shoulder to arm on the body.

The shirt had three dark colour strips — pink, black and green.

The report ascertained the height of the body at about 5 feet 8-9 inches, sources further maintained.

The post-mortem examination of the 10 pieces of the decomposed body was carried out by the six-member medical board at the site of the grave in Ahsanabad, Gulshan-i-Maymar on May 17.

The six-member medical board comprised police surgeon Dr Qasim Soomro, Dr Tariq Mirza, Dr Ghulam Ali, Dr Hamid Ali, Dr Shafee Nizamani and Dr Hafiz Athar.

The samples for the DNA tests were obtained from the exhumed body parts, by a forensic expert especially flown in from Lahore on Monday.

According to Edhi sources, three samples from different parts were collected from the 10 pieces of a decomposed human body which have been kept at the Edhi morgue Shorab Goth under special arrangements.

The forensic expert and his assistant, from the Punjab University’s Institute of Molecular Biology were escorted from the airport under high security to the Edhi morgue.

The local journalists who wanted to talk to the expert were kept away by the personnel of the law enforcement agencies.

Police were deployed outside the Edhi morgue and the key of the locked coffin was in the possession of the police, Edhi sources said.

Sources said that the DNA tests might take a couple of days or weeks, as the samples would be analysed at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Lahore.