QUETTA: Relatives of missing persons, who had been demanding they be allowed to identify dead bodies brought to the Civil Hospital, managed to take away a number of corpses from the hospital morgue.

While it was not clear whether they had positively identified the bodies as belonging to their missing loved ones, hospital officials told Dawn that protesters linked to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) forced their way into the morgue and took away at least five bodies.

Images and videos posted to social media showed a number of men and women gathered at the Civil Hospital to stage a demonstration. Some clips showed masked individuals retrieving bodies, encased in burial shrouds, and placing them in coffins.

BYC activists confirmed that protesters had taken away a number of bodies from the morgue. They claimed that these bodies had been at the Civil Hospital for some time, and the relatives of missing people had gathered there in the hopes of being able to identify whether any of their loved ones were among them.

Authorities claim corpses belonged to Jaffar Express attackers; BYC activists say families had been protesting for days to see bodies, in case their loved ones were among them

On the other hand, authorities claimed the bodies that were taken away were brought to the hospital following the attack on the Jaffar Express and were the unidentified bodies of terrorists who were killed in a military operation.

Police subsequently carried out raids in different parts of Quetta and managed to recover at least three of the bodies, but they had not been returned to the Civil Hospital until going to press.

A BYC spokesperson told Dawn that protesters had been trying to gain access to the morgue for two days to satisfy themselves that the bodies kept there were not of their loved ones.

He claimed that police baton-charged protesters, injuring two women and arresting several individuals, including women. However, authorities were eventually overwhelmed by the sheer number of protesters on the scene, who were eventually able to gain access to the morgue and took away the bodies.

He also claimed that police later recovered most of the bodies from protesters in areas like Secretariat Chowk and Sariab Road. A number of people have also been arrested in connection with the incident.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025