Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Taking suo-moto notice of the discovery of 20 bullet-riddled bodies in Balochistan, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Sunday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Balochistan Police to submit within three days a detailed report over the incident.

Both the heads of FIA and Balochistan Police have been directed to especially mention in the report the steps being taken to stop such incidents.

The CJP took notice on the media reports carrying the details of the incident of killing of 20 people in Balochistan, whose bullet riddled bodies were found in areas of Turbat and Buleda, Kech District of Balochistan.

These people had been brought to Balochistan by human traffickers for their further journey to Iran.

According to reports quoting Levies Forces, the victims belonged to Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and other parts of Punjab, and had been trying to enter Iran illegally and then proceed to Turkey to enter Greece for the sake of employment. Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) had taken responsibility of the attack and an alleged BLF commander involved in the incident was later killed during an intelligence-based operation by Frontier Corps (FC) on Friday last.

Arrests: The FIA arrested a key human trafficker linked to the Turbat carnage from Quetta on Sunday. FIA Deputy Director Khalid Anees said that the human trafficker Sadiq alias Talib was detained on information provided by his under custody accomplice Waheed.

“The detainee pretended to be an Iranian national and used to take Pakistanis across the Iran border,” Anees said, adding that the victims of Turbat massacre had stayed with Sadiq in Quetta.

Bodies of five victims of the Turbat incident were sent to Gujrat from Lahore on Sunday. The bodies were first shifted to Karachi from Turbat via C-130 aircraft. According to Edhi Foundation spokesperson, the bodies were shifted to one of its morgue in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth, where the ritual bathing of the bodies were performed.

Later, the bodies were sent to Lahore via an aircraft, where Provincial Minister for School Education Rana Mashood Khan received the corpses.

The bodies were identified as those of Usman Qadir, Danish Ali, Badar Munir, Saqib Ali and Qasim, hailing from Punjab’s Gujrat.

On November 15, bullet riddled bodies of 15 men were found in the Gerok area of tehsil Buleda in Kech district near Pak-Iran border. All the deceased belonged to Punjab province and were kidnapped by militants.

Separately, bodies of two persons were recovered from room of a hotel on Sunday. Police said that two people who slept in room of a hotel along National Highway in Zhob were found to be dead in the morning.

Published in Daily Times, November 20^th 2017.