A body, believed to be of 23-year-old Mustafa Amir, was exhumed by a medical board in the presence of a magistrate at a Karachi graveyard on Friday, officials said.

Amir was kidnapped and allegedly murdered by his friends in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on January 6. According to the police, the youth’s friends stuffed his body in the trunk of his car and torched it in the Hub area of Balochistan.

Earlier this month, police arrested Armaghan for injuring policemen in an attempt to resist his detention in connection with Amir’s kidnapping case. Another suspect, Armaghan’s friend Sheraz aka Shavez Bukhari, was remanded in police custody by an antiterrorism court (ATC) last week.

Sindh Acting Prosecutor-General Muntazir Mehdi, on behalf of the Sindh government, had filed revision applications in the Sindh High Court (SHC), challenging the ATC orders denying the police Armaghan’s physical custody and sending him on judicial remand instead. Armaghan was remanded in police custody after the SHC on Tuesday set aside the impugned order of the administrative ATC judge.

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate had allowed on Monday an application seeking the exhumation of Amir’s body and directed the provincial health secretary to constitute a medical board to ascertain the cause of his death.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed, who led the exhumation team today, told Dawn.com that “an unknown burnt body was exhumed in Edhi Graveyard, Moach Goth.”

The body was “extensively burnt with appendages missing”, she added.

Dr Syed said that a total of “11 samples to establish identity, through DNA profiling and cross-matching, have been collected, including deep muscle swabs, teeth and bones.”

She said samples were also collected for chemical analysis.

“There is a slim chance that the exhumation board may be able to form an opinion regarding the cause of death,” the police surgeon said.

The body was shifted to an Edhi morgue for preservation till identity confirmation, she added.

Anti-Violent Crime Cell Senior Superintendent of Police Aneel Haider told Dawn.com that the samples were sent to a laboratory at the University of Karachi, adding that the results were expected within a week.

Balochistan police form inquiry committee

Separately, the Balochistan police formed an inquiry committee to probe police negligence in the case.

Talking to Dawn.com today, Hub Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Syed Fazil Shah confirmed that “the police are further investigating the matter after the accused confirmed that the body and car found at Hub belonged to Amir.”

The SSP also confirmed that the police had formed an inquiry committee for the case, under the leadership of Winder Deputy Superintendent of Police Muhammad Jan Sasoli, which would compile a report within five days and identify areas of neglect in the case.