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KARACHI: An alarming increase in the dumping of corpses by the roadside in different parts of the city has been witnessed this year, said police and rescue workers.
The phenomenon common in the 1990s seems to have returned with the mere difference that plastic bags have replaced the old jute bags, which were used to dump bodies then.Often the bodies that initially remained unidentified had torture marks or gunshot wounds, police and hospital sources said.
While the killings and the subsequent dumping of bodies became more frequent during the bouts of political or ethnic violence, their occurrence did not stop even during relatively peaceful days, law-enforcement officials said.
According to police records, 1,241 people were killed during the last seven months in the city, while last year the metropolis had witnessed a total of 1,339 killings.
“Yes, there is a sharp surge in the number of bodies being found every day in the city,” said Anwer Kazmi, a senior official of the Edhi Foundation. He added the occurrence had increased many times this year.
Initially these bodies remained unidentified but once legal formalities were completed they were shifted to the Edhi morgue where families turned up and identified the bodies of their loved ones in most cases, he explained.
The senior functionary of the country's largest charity said: “On a daily average, two bodies were found lying abandoned in different parts of the city this year.”
The last month, however, was an exception with more than 300 killings in different localities of the metropolis, he added.
Mr Kazmi said the morgue mostly remained full to capacity these days, bearing evidence of the recent rise in the number of bodies found stuffed in gunny bags and dumped by the roadside.
A rescue worker said that most of the bodies found stuffed in gunny bags bore torture marks or a gunshot wound. “It has been noticed that the bodies recovered from gunny bags often had a single bullet in the head that caused the death,” said a medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Ramzan Chippa, the patron of what can be described as the city's second largest ambulance network, also acknowledged the fact that the phenomenon had increased sharply during the current year.
The number of bodies being found in the city had increased in recent months, he said.
Phenomenon not area-specific
“This phenomenon is not limited to a specific part of the metropolis,” said Additional Police Surgeon Dr Hamid Pariyar while speaking to Dawn .
He said unidentified bodies were being brought to public-sector hospitals from different parts of the city. But he declined to share the data pertaining to the killings and the bodies found abandoned.
He said he had strict orders from the higher authorities not to share such figures with the media.
Generally the bodies are thrown from moving cars, but these days motorcycles are being used for the purpose, according to some police officials.
A station house officer posted in a downtown area explained that during the investigation of some recent incidents, it emerged that two suspects had forced one to sit between them on a motorbike. Then they travelled to a deserted place where they fired at the victim and sped away on the two-wheeler.
In most cases, it was found that the victims were kidnapped before being murdered.
In the early hours of Aug 17, five bodies were found at different spots in and around PECHS within an hour. The victims, all friends and residents of Lyari, had been kidnapped before being shot in the head and chest.
At times the bodies are dumped in pairs. For instance, two trussed-up bodies, each with a gunshot wound in the head, were spotted near the UBL Sports Complex, Federal B Area, within the remit of the Joharabad police station on Aug 15. After medico-legal formalities at the hospital, both unidentified bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue where they were identified by their heirs the following afternoon.
Nowadays if a family visited police station to report about their missing relative, officials usually advised them to visit the Edhi morgue, said a charity worker. “And in most cases people do find the bodies of their loved ones at the morgue,” he added.
Most of the victims were identified as daily wage earners, drivers, office workers and vendors.
While the phenomenon was earlier limited to the Lyari and trans-Lyari areas, but it had become common in other parts of the city such as Nazimabad, Abul Hasan Ispahani Road, F. B Area, Malir, Orangi Town, Old Golimar.
Additional Inspector General of Police Saud Mirza was not available for his comments on the issue.
