KARACHI, Oct 6: Police buried the bodies of the two foreigners who were killed in a shootout in Defence Housing Authority on Sept 11, in a graveyard in the city on Sunday, police said.
“We have buried them temporarily in a graveyard in the city in accordance with Islamic rites. As and when their claimants turn up, we will ascertain their identity, and hand over the bodies after fulfilling the legal requirements,” the inspector-general of the Sindh police, Syed Kamal Shah, told Dawn.
However, he declined to disclose the place of burial and the name of the man who led the funeral prayers.
A police officer said policemen went to the Edhis’ morgue at Sohrab Goth around 3:30am on Sunday to take the two bodies for burial. Edhi sources said the bodies of the two foreign nationals were wrapped in shrouds after they were given bath. The bodies were handed over to police, who carried them in their own vehicles.
Police sources said the bodies were buried in a nearby graveyard in the central part of the city after funeral prayers were offered.
The identity of the dead men has not yet been established, but police believed that one of them was from Egypt and the other from Yemen.
Two alleged activists of the Al Qaeda were shot dead and five others were arrested after a three-hour long alleged encounter with police on Sept 11 in the DHA. Seven personnel of law-enforcement agencies were also injured in the alleged shootout.
The whereabouts of a woman, her child and husband still remain unknown. They also lived in the same apartment where the suspected militants of the Al Qaeda were staying.
Heavy contingents of police, backed by Rangers, had raided the C-63 apartment in a three-storied building on 15th Street, Phase II Extension, DHA, on a tip-off that some alleged militants of the Al Qaeda were staying there.
Five alleged militants were handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US authorities for further investigations, as they were alleged to be activists of the Al Qaeda and Pakistan had been aiding the USA in its war against terrorism, intelligence sources said.
The two dead men could not be identified as five of their arrested companions had been handed over to the FBI shortly after their arrest. They had reportedly disclosed the identity of their dead companions to FBI agents. Photographs of the dead men were also shown to the arrested suspects, who identified them as their companions who were shot dead, the sources said.
However, police were unable to disclose the identity of the dead suspects without meeting legal requirements. Either the companions of the dead men should have identified the bodies at the morgue, or any relative being a claimant should have identified the dead men.
A spokesman for the women, who staged a protest demonstration on Saturday against the delay in the burial of the two dead men, said: “Burial by police, who are the killers of these two Mujahideen, is unacceptable.”