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| December 18, 2007 | Tuesday | Zilhaj 7, 1428 |
KARACHI: PPP, police lock horns over Oct 18 victims’ burial
KARACHI, Dec 17: The provincial administration has refused to hand over the remains of victims of the Oct 18 blasts to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for burial since the government believes that the PPP is politicising the issue, Dawn has learnt.
A senior official said that a decision was due shortly regarding the burial of five unidentified bodies and the remains of other victims of the Karsaz blasts He added that the government would itself decide upon the burial details. “We will not allow this issue to be politicised by anyone,” Sindh Home Secretary, Brigadier (retd) Ghulam Mohtaram told Dawn.
The remains – five bodies and 16 bags of severed body parts – have been lying in the Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth for the past two months. The authorities had been hoping that some of the bodies would be identified by family members of the people missing since Oct 18.
The home secretary’s comments are likely to widen the rift between the PPP and the Sindh administration over investigations into the October 18 bomb blasts, which have failed to make any headway in two months.
Similarly, they may also raise concerns amongst at least five families of people missing since the night of Ms Bhutto’s homecoming rally. These families have been waiting for their blood samples to be matched with DNA profiles created from body parts recovered from the site of the incident. While these samples were deposited with the police nearly three weeks ago, they have not been sent to the laboratory concerned.
Meanwhile, despite the fact that two months have passed since Oct 18, when one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s history took place, investigations do not appear to figure high on the agenda of either the authorities or the PPP. However, the party is vocal in its criticism of the authorities for not handing over the remains at the Edhi morgue.
“The PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has announced that the deceased workers will be laid to rest near the grave of the founder of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,” said the PPP central leader Nisar Khuhro. “We cannot understand the logic behind the government’s decision to refuse to refuse to hand the bodies and remains to the PPP. They were our workers; we are their heirs and we must bury them.”
Saying that it would be unjustified for the government to deny the PPP the right to carry out the burials, Mr Khuhro said that his party would approach higher authorities again for permission to collect the remains from the morgue.
The issue also highlights the lethargic attitude of the police authorities towards investigating an attack that killed over 140 people and injured more than 400. The lack of coordination between the various institutions concerned further complicates this sensitive issue.
The administration of the Edhi morgue, for example, remains in the dark about the future of the five unidentified bodies and the bags of body parts in its custody. Edhi officials believe that the police still need to refer to the remains for investigation purposes. “We have written to the police high-ups seeking permission for the burials,” said Anwar Kazmi, a spokesman for Edhi Foundation. “We expect their reply in a week and want to carry out the burials as soon as possible since despite the passage of two months, there is no clue as to these victims’ families or their identities.”
But SP Niaz Khosa, one of the five-member police investigation team set up a day after the blasts, told Dawn that the victims’ remains were not required for investigation purposes. “We don’t need any assistance from the unidentified bodies and body parts,” he said when asked about the police’s apparent reluctance over the burials. “We have already got samples and the DNA profiles, and we need nothing more from those remains.”
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