QUETTA: Police on Thursday handed over the bodies of 38 victims of the Jan 29 Bela coach accident to their relatives after their identification.

Forty-one people died when the coach fell into a ravine after hitting a pillar of a bridge at Quetta-Karachi national highway in the Bela area and caught fire.

The charred bodies were beyond identification and shifted to Jinnah Hospital Karachi for DNA test.

“Samples of the bodies and of their relatives were sent to the Karachi University for DNA test,” SSP Lasbela Israr Ahmed Umrani said

After receiving test results, the bodies were identified and handed over to the heirs at the hospital, the SSP added.

The bodies were despatched to the native towns of the deceased through Edhi ambulances, which left Karachi for Quetta in the evening along with the family members who had received the bodies.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2023