ATTOCK, April 17: Bodies of eight men were found on Sunday at a deserted place near China Chowk on Attock-Haji Shah Road, 8km from here.

Some passers-by informed police about the presence of the bodies in the area. District Police Officer Dr Mohammad Akhtar Abbas and personnel of intelligence agencies rushed to the site and took the bodies to the district headquarters hospital for post-mortem.

Four bodies were dumped at one place in an agriculture field and the rest a few yards away. A few of the bodies were semi-nude.

There was no sign of blood on the ground, indicating that the men were killed elsewhere and dumped there in the night.

Talking to newsmen, the DPO said the deceased were not local people. They were probably killed two days ago, he added.

The search of the men's clothes had not given any clue about their identity. They were between 18 and 35 years of age and were all bearded.

He said a police team had been formed to investigate the murders.

Answering a question, Dr Abbas said the killings did not look like a terrorist act. However, the cause of death could only be ascertained after autopsy. If the deceased were not identified, their bodies would be buried by police, he said.

The medical superintendent of the DHQ hospital, Dr Khalid Mehmood, said that post-mortem on two of the bodies had revealed that the deceased were strangulated.