KARACHI: The inquiry committee constituted to ascertain the cause of death of seven airport workers is set to examine call data record of the victims to verify the claims of their families that they had been abandoned in the cold storage facility after the security forces had declared to have ‘cleared’ the facility, it emerged on Saturday.

A source close to the process said that after interviewing families of the victims, rescue workers, airport and security officials, the three-member committee would now look into ‘other aspects’ that included the examination of victims’ mobile phone calls record.

“The committee is probing into the incident from all aspects,” said a source. “The committee is meeting daily and so far has questioned several individuals concerned, including officials from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Airport Security Force (ASF), firefighters of the local administration and family members of the victims.”

He said the committee was moving ‘fast’ to achieve its objective set by the federal government to ascertain the exact reason and fix responsibility for the death of the seven airport workers.

Death of cargo workers

Charred remains of the seven missing workers had been retrieved from the cold storage facility around 36 hours after the attack on the airport by militants on June 8.

Their families claimed that they had to stage a protest demonstration near the Star Gate attracting media coverage to press the authorities to look for their missing relatives who they said had called them on their phones asking for help.

The tragic incident caused the federal government to form an investigation team led by officer commanding of the Institute of Air Safety, Air Commodore Noor Elahi Bajwa, with a senior official of the CAA and Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief Ahmed Chinoy as its members.

“There are two versions since day one,” said the source. “The families of the victims claimed that they received the calls of their loved ones telling them that they were stranded in the cold storage before they died. To ascertain such claims, the call data record of the victims is crucial.”

According to another version, all the seven employees of a private cargo company were found dead inside their office and facility, he said.

“The team will now carry out investigation with technical support to establish location of the cargo workers when they called their families for help. It will also help in establishing the time when they made such calls,” he added.

More than 20 people, mostly security officials, were killed in a brazen attack on the Karachi airport earlier this month when groups of militants armed with assault rifles and hand grenades stormed into the facility from different sides.

Though all the 10 militants were killed within six hours of the assault during an operation jointly carried out by army commandos, Rangers personnel, ASF men and police, the deaths of the seven private cargo company workers emerged as one of the most tragic episodes of the incident.

Citing the mandate and objectives of the committee, the source said it was tasked to look into every aspect to fix responsibility as there was an impression that over half a dozen people trapped in one of the facilities had been abandoned.

“The committee is likely to complete the job within the next few days. The report will be formally submitted to the federal government, which will decide to make it public or not,” he added.

When asked about the CAA claim relying on the medico-legal reports of the seven bodies carried out by the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) that all the seven cargo workers had died between 3am and 9am on June 9, he said the committee still had many unanswered questions. He said: “Even if they had died so early what prompted the authorities to declare the airport ‘cleared’ that subsequently resulted in the resumption of flight operation, while the seven bodies were lying inside the airport.”

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2014