One of 62 charred victims identified by relatives

Karachi
The bodies of one of the 62 unfortunate passengers of a Shikarpur-bound bus, burnt to ashes after a head on collision with an oil tanker on the link road connecting Super and National highways late Saturday night, was identified by his relatives.
Meanwhile the Memon Goth police registered a case against the drivers of the bus and the oil tanker on charges of manslaughter, reckless driving, negligence resulting in killings and other related sections of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR (4/2014) was registered under sections 279, 320, 337G, 322 on the PPC on the complaint of SI Abul Aziz of Memon Goth police station, said DSP Pervez Ali Shah, adding that the owner of the bus had been identified and raids were being conducted for their arrests.
He said the ill-fated bus was being driven by Asif Jakherani and the owner of the bus was Badar Abro. However, owner and driver of the oil tanker could not be identified since the vehicle had been registered in Lasbella.
“We have dispatched a team of investigators to Lasbella to search for the driver and owner of the oil tanker,” said DSP Shah. “Search is also under way in Karachi.”
He said almost all the passengers of the bus died because emergency exits had been blocked and seats were permanently fixed to the floor with metallic bolts. “When the vehicle caught fire, passengers were trapped inside and could not escape.”
The DSP claimed that when the police inspected the burnt bus and the oil tanker, it was found that the gate next to the driver’s seat were open which meant that both made their escape when the vehicles caught fire.

Bodies’ identification
Meanwhile, samples of the remaining 61 charred bodies and 42 relatives of the ill-fated commuters were sent to Islamabad for identification via DNA testing.
The Karachi police also sent a request to the National Forensic Science Agency, Islamabad, to send a team of experts to Karachi so that they too could collect samples so that all the bodies could be identified timely and handed over to their loved ones.
According to SP Investigation Malik Altaf, owing to mishandling and delay in sending the samples of victims of the Baldia fire, 19 bodies had not been identified and had to be buried by welfare organisations.
“So this time we have sent a request to the National Forensic Science Agency, a department of the National Police Bureau in Islamabad, to send their experts for collecting DNA samples and helping speed up the identification process of the charred bodies,” he said.

Attempted suicide
As the authorities figure out ways to kick start the identification of charred remains of the 62 passengers, the brother of one of the victims tried self immolation outside the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth when he was refused to be handed over the remains of his brother.
Hidayatullah, the brother of deceased Azmatullah, tried to get the body of his brother from the Edhi morgue where all the deceased are being kept till their identification is complete. However, when he was told that the body could not be released before DNS tests confirmed its identity, Hidayatullah poured petrol over himself and tried to set himself ablaze.
He, however, could not succeed because volunteers of the Edhi Foundation and relatives of other people killed in the accident stopped him and took him to a nearby hospital for treatment.