Islamabad: Over 4,500 bodies, many of them mutilated, have been found over the past four years across Pakistan, according to officials.
A two-judge Supreme Court bench was informed yesterday that 4,557 unclaimed bodies were found in the country over the past four years, Dawn reported.
"We do not need protective walls around our cities for defence purposes provided citizens are fully protected," Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said.
"We are creating difficulties for ourselves by not facilitating our citizens," he said.
The bench was hearing an application of Nasrullah Baloch, chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, who informed the court about lack of a proper system for handling of mutilated or unclaimed bodies, the paper said.
At the last hearing on February 3, the apex court had asked provincial governments to come up with a comprehensive report about total number of cases of unidentified bodies and the procedure about handing them over to legal heirs.
Realising the grave state of affairs, the court summoned Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt and asked him to take interest in the matter.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) of Balochistan Farid Dogar told the court that 153 bodies were found in Balochistan from 2010 to 2014.
Thirty-nine unclaimed bodies had been buried. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa AAG Waqar Ahmed Khan said 2,600 bodies were found in his province, of which 43 remained unidentified.
He said many mutilated bodies were found in sacks. Punjab AAG Razzaq A Mirza said 1,299 bodies were found during the period between 2013 and 2014.
Of these 51 remained unidentified and they had been given to anatomy departments of different medical colleges.
Sindh AAG Adnan Karim informed the court that 437 bodies were found in the province. Of these 398 were found in Karachi south. He said 94 bodies remained unidentified.
Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, representing Islamabad Capital Territory, told the court that 68 bodies were found in the capital from 2012 to 2014.
He said 32 bodies remained unclaimed. Referring to Balochistan AAG's report, the judges were surprised on learning that legal heirs or relatives of missing persons were not informed when bodies of their dear ones were found.
The issues of missing persons and dumped bodies have been haunting the country for some years.
