QUETTA: Another three mutilated bodies were found in a grave in Totak area of Khuzdar district on Sunday.

According to official sources, Justice Noor Muhammad Maskanzai of the Balochistan High Court, who was heading a judicial tribunal investigating the discovery of 13 bodies in the area in the last week of January, went to Totak along with the deputy commissioner of Khuzdar and other officials after receiving a tip about the presence there of more corpses.

The bodies were found in one grave in the presence of Justice Maskanzai, the sources said. “The total number of bodies found in Totak has now increased to 16,” the sources said.

The bodies found on Sunday were taken to the Khuzdar district hospital, Balochistan Home Secretary Syed Asadur Rehman Gilani told Dawn.

Heavy contingents of law-enforcement personnel were deployed in the area.

“An 80-year-old man of Totak had informed the judicial tribunal about the presence of more bodies at the place,” a senior official said, adding that a search was carried out about half a kilometre from the place where 13 bodies had been found earlier.

The sources said that Khuzdar’s Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Afzal Sarpehra was in Totak along with security officials. “More places will be dug on Monday and recovery of more bodies cannot be ruled out,” an official who did not want to be named told this correspondent.

Two of the 13 bodies found in January have been identified, but the 11 others were not identifiable.

“The three new bodies were also not in a condition to be identified,” hospital sources said, adding that they were just skeletons.

The bodies have been kept in hospital where people started coming to see if it was possible to identify them.

“Only a DNA test can determine their identity,” the hospital sources said.

A team of doctors will examine the bodies on Monday and collect samples to be sent for DNA tests.

The chief justice of Pakistan had taken notice of the discovery of the 13 bodies and expressed dismay that the DNA test reports had not been submitted so far.

“DNA tests take around three months,” the official sources said.

The Balochistan government had set up the judicial tribunal which has collected evidence in Khuzdar.

The official sources said the tribunal had sought two more months for completing its report.

Justice Maskanzai has been staying in Khuzdar for five days in connection with the investigation.