KARACHI, Feb 24: Seventeen victims of the Baldia factory fire tragedy, whose bodies were charred beyond recognition, were buried on Sunday in a local graveyard over five months after the country’s worst industrial disaster.

As many as 259 factory workers had perished in the inferno in September last year.The Sindh High Court had on Feb 21 ordered the burial of 17 unclaimed human remains by allotting a number to each victim.

“All the 17 human remains have been buried in a Karachi Metropolitan Corporation graveyard in the Mockho area,” said Anwar Kazmi, a senior official of the Edhi Foundation. “Abdul Sattar Edhi himself gave final bath to the victims and supervised the burials.”

The charity official said that the bodies had been kept in the Edhi Morgue in Sohrab Goth for the past over five months.

Deputy Commissioner-West Ghanwar Leghari said the authorities had buried 17 bodies on the orders of the court.

He said the authorities were trying to ascertain the identities of the victims through DNA testing. If the victims were identified, the bodies would be exhumed and returned to their families, he added.