QUETTA, July 12: Bullet-riddled and mutilated bodies of a kidnapped doctor and six coal miners were found in Degari area, about 70 kilometres east of here, on Thursday.

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing of the seven people who were identified as Dr Muhammad Ishaq, Ahmadullah, Kashar Khan, Khan Muhammad, Muhammad Ahmed, Muhammad Nawaz and Muhammad Akbar.

They were kidnapped from the Marwar coal field area in Bolan district on July 7 at gunpoint. They were working in mines of the United Coal Company.

Official sources said that Levies personnel rushed to the area after receiving information about presence of the bodies at the Degari-Quetta crossing.

They brought the bodies to the Bolan Medical College Hospital in Quetta.

“Multiple bullet wounds were found in different parts of victims’ bodies,” hospital sources said, adding that faces of five victims were mutilated because of deep bullet wounds.

Chief Inspector of Mines Muhammad Iftikhar confirmed the incident and claimed that after the kidnapping the authorities concerned were working for safe recovery of the seven people.

“All victims belonged to Shangla area of Swat district in Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa,” official sources said, adding that the bodies would be sent there after completion of formalities.

Meanwhile, hundreds of workers of the Pakhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party and mines workers brought the bodies of the miners to the Balochistan High Court. They gathered in front of the court building when Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary was hearing missing people’s case in the Quetta Registry of the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice took notice of the incident and ordered the home secretary to investigate the matter and arrest the culprits.—Staff Correspondent