LAHORE, July 13: Punjab has laid the blame on the federal authorities for the delay in the post-mortem on the bodies of police trainees from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed in a militant attack here on Thursday morning.

“The National Academy for Prison Administration is a federal institution working under the interior ministry and its authorities took six hours to lodge an FIR of the killing that resulted in delayed autopsy of the martyred staff,” Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said at a press conference here on Friday.

There was confusion among officials of the academy about who should be made plaintiff in the case, the principal or any other officer, he said.

The minister was trying to remove any misunderstanding between the people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caused by a protest lodged by the KP home secretary over what he described as ‘unprofessional response and bureaucratic inertia’ of Punjab authorities resulting in a 15-hour delay in autopsy of the nine trainee prison staff.

Rana Sana said the Lahore police had immediately approached the academy authorities for registering a case, but they took six hours to decide the complainant and the bodies remained lying in the hospital mortuary.

“The case was registered immediately after receiving the complaint initiating the process of autopsy and then the bodies were wrapped in national flag and were given a guard of honour before being dispatched to KP.”

The Punjab government did not show carelessness at any point in the process, he said.

About security of the hostel building where the trainees were attacked, he said the academy officials never expressed any security fears nor sought a security cover from Lahore police.