ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that the Balochistan government had appointed a single-judge tribunal to ascertain facts and circumstances leading to the discovery of mass graves in Khuzdar.

Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai of the Balochistan High Court will complete his findings and recommendations in a month, Home Secretary Asad Rehman Gilani told a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani. The court had taken suo motu notice on an appeal by Nasrullah Baloch, chairman of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, of the unearthing of 13 decomposed bodies from the mass graves.

Mr Baloch claimed that three of the bodies had been identified and their names were on the list of missing persons.

Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Syed Abdul Hameed Shah submitted a report which said that a shepherd from Tootak area had approached his office on Jan 17 and divulged on the condition of anonymity that he had seen vultures and crows hovering over some bodies lying under heaps of stone and mud in the remote area of Mazzi.

The deputy commissioner, in coordination with local Frontier Corps Kalat Scouts Commandant Col Tanvir Ahmed Khan, went to the area, along with large contingents of levies and FC. The places were dug and two bodies were found. Some other spots were marked for digging the following day and 11 more bodies were found — five in one grave and six in three separate pits.

The bodies were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital and tissues were obtained for DNA tests. Preliminary results of the tests are expected on Thursday.

The report said a medical team constituted by the provincial government had carried out post-mortem of the remains and collected samples to determine the cause of deaths.

The bodies were now in hospital and open to all for identification, it said.

Two bodies — of Qadir Bakhsh and Naseer Ahmed of Peer Andar — have been identified and handed over to their heirs on the request of the deputy commissioner of Awaran after completion of formalities.

But the report did not mention whether those identified were on the list of missing persons.

The court adjourned the case till March 7.

PANCHAYAT: In a case relating to a ‘panchayat’ (village council) accused of ordering gang-rape of a woman in revenge for her brother’s alleged affair, a report submitted by Muzaffargarh district police chief Usman Akram Gondal said the victim had been stripped, but not raped.

The court expressed dismay over non-implementation of its directive to the inspector general of Punjab Police to submit the report and ordered resubmission of comprehensive findings after 10 days.

The district police officer said nine of the 10 accused had been arrested and presented before the local magistrate who had sent eight of them to judicial lock-up.

Physical remand of Ghulam Yasin, who had stripped the woman, was granted till Feb 4 for his DNA test, the report said.

Samples taken by a woman medical officer have been sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, Lahore, for DNA test.

Mohammad Nawaz, member of the two-man panchayat, had been arrested, while Saeed Ahmed was on pre-arrest bail till Feb 6, the report said. It was on Nawaz’s order that the woman was taken to a room where she was stripped.