‘19 bodies of crash victims forcibly taken away from morgue’

The Edhi Foundation on Tuesday said that relatives of 19 passengers who died in the Friday crash of a Pakistan International Air (PIA) flight had forcibly taken bodies away from its morgue.

“Nineteen bodies have been forcibly taken away from the morgue by families, and I believe that most of the severely charred bodies are not properly recognised,” said Faisal Edhi, the charity’s head.

He said relatives did not provide any proof or identification before taking away the bodies. He also appealed to the relatives of the victims to not argue and fight with the morgue staffers. “Our staffers at the morgue are well-trained but there are severely burnt bodies not recognisable,” he said.

Edhi said that because of the aggression of the victims’ relatives and pressure from political figures, the morgue administration was forced to hand over the bodies to them. “The government should provide security to the morgue’s management,” he demanded.

So far, the authorities have handed over 41 bodies to their families after identifying them, according to the health ministry. The DNA tests, which will take at least one month, are underway to identify the remains of the other victims.