Quetta: Families of missing persons stormed the mortuary at Civil Hospital Quetta after being denied access to identify bodies, allegedly taking away five corpses linked to the Jaffer Express attack. However, police later recovered three bodies and arrested several individuals.
According to reports, it remains unclear whether the protestors were able to identify the bodies as their missing loved ones. Hospital officials confirmed that demonstrators associated with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) forcibly entered the mortuary and took away at least five bodies.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed a large number of men and women protesting inside the hospital. Some video clips depicted masked individuals removing bodies, wrapping them in shrouds, and placing them in coffins for burial.
BYC activists confirmed that protestors had taken multiple bodies from the mortuary. They claimed that the bodies had been kept at the hospital for some time and that the relatives of missing persons had gathered there in the hope of identifying their loved ones.
On the other hand, authorities claimed that the bodies brought to the hospital after the Jaffer Express attack belonged to militants killed in a military operation.
Later, police conducted raids in various areas of Quetta and managed to recover at least three bodies, but as of the time of publishing, they had not been returned to the Civil Hospital.
A BYC spokesperson told that protestors had been trying for two days to gain access to the mortuary to verify whether their missing family members were among the deceased.
They alleged that police baton-charged the protestors, injuring two women and arresting several individuals, including women. However, as the number of demonstrators grew, they overpowered the authorities and gained access to the mortuary, eventually taking away the bodies.
The spokesperson further claimed that police later recovered most of the bodies from areas such as Secretariat Chowk and Sariab Road, while also arresting multiple individuals involved in the incident.
It is important to note that bodies of 13 people were left by unknown people in coffins at Quetta graveyard two days ago, BYC claimed that the bodies ,maybe, are of missing persons, the BYC is protesting for.
