September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

QUETTA, Sept 3: A post-mortem examination of the bodies of two women allegedly buried alive in the Baba Kot area of Nasirabad district last month suggests that they were killed by hitting at their heads with blunt instruments, and not by firing, according to a surgeon.

“I have not found any mark of bullets on the bodies of the women. The murderers used stones and strong wooden sticks to kill them,” lady police surgeon Dr Shamim Gul Mashwani, the head of a team of doctors who conducted the post-mortem, told Dawn on Wednesday.

She denied reports that the women, aged between 20 and 25 years, were buried alive, saying that the post-mortem proved that they had been buried in a ditch after having been killed. “No sign of burying alive was found during autopsy on either body,” she said.

The post-mortem report will be submitted to the authorities concerned in Quetta on Thursday.

“The death cause of the women was head injuries,” Dr Shamim said, adding that they had been brutally hit on the right and left sides of their heads. She said that skulls of the women were found broken. The women were buried without shroud (Kafan).

The doctors’ team also collected pieces of skulls and samples of blood and hair of the women for DNA tests.

Dr Shamim said the bodies were found buried in a two-foot deep ditch and some parts of one of the bodies were visible from the surface.

“Nose and fingers of the body were nibbled at by animals. Both the bodies were decomposed.”

The bodies were later handed over to the Edhi Trust for proper burial. So far no relative of either woman has contacted police.

Police sources said the fate of third woman who was whisked away by armed men was unknown as no grave had been found.

“Escaping of the third woman from the clutches of killers could not be ruled out,” Sib DIG Ghulam Shabir Shiekh said.

He said that police were also looking for the taxi driver who had brought the three women to Usta Mohammad from Baba Kot.

Three suspects have been arrested so far.

According to sources, SHOs of Khan Kot and Baba Kot police stations have been suspended for negligence.