QUETTA: The bodies retrieved from a well in Balochistan’s Barkhan area were those of Granaz Bibi’s sons, according to a DNA report submitted to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).

Three bodies, including that of a female, were found near the village of Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, a sitting minister in the Balochistan government, earlier this year. Police initially believed that the three bodies were those of Granaz Bibi and her two sons.

But an autopsy has now revealed that the female body was not that of Granaz, police surgeon Dr Ayesha Fiaz said in her report.

Instead, she added, it was the body of a 17-year-old girl whose face and neck were burned by acid to render her beyond recognition.

Granaz was, in fact, later found alive by law enforcement personnel in Kohlu, which is close to Barkhan district, after the arrest of Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran. The three bodies were handed over to the Marri tribe after post-mortem in Quetta’s Civil Hospital.

Samples from the three bodies and Granaz Bibi were sent to the forensic laboratory in Lahore for DNA test. The identity of the female body remains unascertained so far.

The discovery of three bodies near Sardar Khetran’s ancestral village had sent a wave of shock and outrage through the region. Sit-ins lasting a couple of weeks drew the nation’s attention to illegal prisons allegedly run by tribal chiefs.

Meanwhile, the authorities have beefed up security for provincial minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran after reports emerged that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had put his name on its hit list.

The Superintendent of Police in Barkhan issued a threat alert saying that the TTP was planning to attack Sardar Khetran.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2023