Bodies of 10 Karachi airport attackers exhumed for DNA tests

KARACHI: A medical board on Tuesday exhumed the bodies of 10 terrorists for DNA tests who were killed in a gun battle during an attack on the Karachi airport in June 2014.

The medical board exhumed the bodies in the Edhi Foundation’s graveyard in Mowachh Goth and collected samples in the presence of a judicial magistrate for conducting DNA tests to establish the identities of the terrorists.

Talking to The News, Raja Umer Khattab of the Transnational Terrorists Intelligence Group (TTIG) of the Counter Terrorism Department said that, during their earlier raids they had arrested notorious and wanted terrorists belonging to banned organisations, including Lashker-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), who disclosed the names of the killed terrorists and said they belonged to their organisation.

In this regard, a request had been sent to the Sindh health secretary for the formation of a board for carrying out the exhumation of the bodies. The letter states: “In compliance with the Honorable “1” Judicial Magistrate Malir Karachi letter, the members of the Medical Board comprising the following officer will depart from the Police Surgeon Office Karachi on November 22, at 9am for the exhumation (DNA samples) of the dead bodies of ten unknown persons (in the airport attack case) buried at the Edhi graveyard, Hub River Road, Karachi, in the jurisdiction of the Police Station Maochko in the presence of the Honorable “1” Judicial Magistrate Malir Karachi.”

The board members are: Prof (Capt) Farhat Hussain Mirza, chairman of the board as well as the chairman of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi; Dr Summaiya Syed, Sr WMLO Civil Hospital Karachi; Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi, Sr MLO CHK; Dr Aijaz Ahmed Khokhar, Police Surgeon Karachi.

Copies of the letter were also forwarded to the secretary of the Health Department, District and Sessions Judge Malir and others. The letter also requested the SSP Investigation Malir to direct the SHO and SIO Airport for necessary arrangements for the exhumation of the bodies under the intimation of this office.

The SSP West also requested security arrangements for exhumation, while the SHO Airport was advised to coordinate with the medical board and ensure a police contingent was present to guard the graveyard and the area around it to minimise public interference.

As per the directions and requests, all arrangements were made on time and on Tuesday morning the medical board conducted the exhumation of the bodies and took DNA samples from them. The whole process was done with coordination with the board members who preserved the samples.

Incharge CTD Sindh Raja Umer Khattab said that the samples had been sent to Islamabad for DNA testing and the results would confirm the identities of the terrorists.

He added that the names earlier disclosed by the held terrorists were Majid and Hasham, who were killed in the airport attack, and their names were disclosed by a terrorist, Saeed alias Kalu, and also by the recently arrested Bobby, who claimed that Majid was his brother-in-law while Hashaam was also known to him and they were residents of Orangi Town.