KARACHI, April 8: Five bullet-riddled bodies were found in a remote village in Balochistan, 45kms from Karachi, on Thursday morning. The bodies were brought to the Civil Hospital here for autopsy.

The bodies were discovered by children who were playing in Zahoor Goth, located 20 km from HUBCO power plant. Later area people informed the police. The Hub police described the victims as outlaws who were wearing bullet carrying belts.

Each victim was shot in the head from a close range, police said. They also found live rounds lying close to the bodies, but no weapon was recovered from the crime scene. The killers might have taken away weapons belonging to the five men, police said.

The Hub police suspected enmity between rival gangs of outlaws as the motive behind the killing. Two of the five bodies were identified as Zahoor and Ali Irani, police said. Bodies were first taken to civil hospital in Hub for postmortem, but the medicolegal officer showed his inability to carry out the autopsies, citing lack of resources, Rizwan Edhi who had taken the bodies told Dawn.

Subsequently, bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where MLOs first showed reluctance and then carried out the postmortem, Edhi sources said. The examination was performed in the open yard outside the mortuary due to the unbearable stench.

Hospital sources said all the bodies had multiple bullet wounds in their skulls. The bodies were later shifted to Edhi Home, Sohrab goth. A spokesman for the Edhi Foundation said that the bodies were in such a bad state that they could not be kept with the other bodies in the morgue.

He said that according to the police, their heirs are expected to turn up in a day or two to collect the bodies. Each body was kept in separate boxes to ensure that it does not spread contamination.

The bodies were kept in the separate enclosure of the morgue. Brother of one of the victims - Zahoor - reached the city on Thursday evening, but decided to take the body on Friday, Edhi sources said.