Signs of torture found on 4 bodies recovered from pit in Karachi’s Mai Kolachi

KARACHI: The decomposed bodies of four individuals discovered in a pit on Mai Kolachi Road last night bore multiple marks of torture, Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said on Saturday. According to police, the four bodies — two of which were male and two of which were female — were found in a bushy area in the limits of the Docks police station on Friday. Speaking to Dawn , the police surgeon said the victims’ ages were between 10 to 40 years , adding that they were around four to five days old. She said the corpses were taken to Civil Hospital, where medico-legal formalities were completed late on Friday night. Dr Syed said that one victim, a boy between 13 to 14 years of age, had multiple injuries to the head, face and neck. She said that another boy around 10 years of age had injuries at the throat. The third victim, a girl around 14 to 15 years of age, also had multiple injuries to the head, face and neck. The fourth victim, a woman aged around 40 years, had injuries to the skull, she added. “All the relevant samples have been collected to test for intoxication and sexual violence,” she said. Meanwhile, South Deputy Inspector General Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the identities of the victims had not yet been confirmed, adding that they had been moved to an Edhi morgue for identification. He said there was no CCTV footage available of the area from where the bodies were found. He added that a first information report (FIR) had not been registered so far as investigators were waiting for relatives to approach the police to identify and claim the bodies. He added that if no one came forward, a FIR would be registered on behalf of the state. Raa further said that the victims’ injuries appeared to have been caused by an axe or a sharp-edged weapon. However, he said that the exact cause of death would be determined once the autopsy report was finalised. He surmised that since three of the victims appeared to be children and the fourth a woman in her 40s, they may all belong to the same family. “So the gruesome killing may be linked with so-called honour killings,” he expressed.