QUETTA: A four-member Documentary Evidence Committee, headed by a special magistrate, has sought some basic information from the organisers of the sit-in staged at Western Bypass in protest against the Mach tragedy, including the identity of “seven Afghan nationals killed in the incident”.

A statement issued by the district administration on Friday said that the Afghan government had written to the Pakistani foreign ministry demanding that the bodies of the Afghan victims be handed over to it.

The district administration asked the organisers to immediately call off the sit-in in view of a risk of spread of coronavirus and security threat in Quetta.

The statement said that the organisers had also been asked to bring blood relatives of the slain miners before the local administration for payment of compensation and submit computerised national identity cards or Afghan refugee cards of the victims to the Documentary Evidence Committee.

However, it said, the organisers of the sit-in had not given a meaningful answer to these queries so far. “No progress has been made in providing proof of Pakistani identity of the victims.”

The district committee warned that if any untoward incident occurred, the organisers of the sit-in would be responsible for it.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021