IN a country where the needs of the living barely register with the state, is it any wonder that the dead are treated with indifference?

During the course of a Supreme Court hearing of an application filed by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, it has emerged that at least 4,557 bodies have been recovered from various parts of the country over the past four years.

Also read: 4,557 bodies found in four years, SC informed

A sizeable number remained unclaimed. Given that some of the provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory gave statistics for only the last two years, the actual figure could be much higher.

In the case of Balochistan and the murky goings-on under the label of ‘security imperatives’ in that province, which gave rise to the aforementioned application, we can postulate that the facts are even further from the surface.

As per the figures cited at the hearing, the highest number of bodies found was in KP with 2,600, of which 43 remained unidentified.

The statement by the KP AAG that in his province many mutilated corpses were found in sacks is telling and we must ask whether the police have investigated the motives behind the obviously premeditated murders, identified the bodies and informed bereaved family members.

While the circumstances in which other individuals had met their death was not clarified, a more streamlined procedure is clearly needed to address the issue of unclaimed bodies.

Behind every such body is a family that needs closure, as quickly and with as much dignity as possible.

One stumbling block to identification could well be that large numbers of Pakistani males are part of the migrant labour force, leaving behind their families in search of work elsewhere in the country.

The archaic system whereby the police places notices with pictures of unclaimed bodies in local newspapers, asking for family members to come forward, is no answer in such circumstances.

The problem, however, could be resolved by expanding the scope of recently introduced digitisation of law-enforcement processes to create a centralised database of ‘found’ bodies.

Such a database would enable the police to cross-reference FIRs filed with them of missing people against bodies found in areas outside their jurisdiction.

The public too could be given access which, given the often suspicious circumstances of their loved one’s death, would be the very least the state can do.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2015

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