KARACHI: Bodies of two men, said to have died after a tunnel they were digging up to steal oil from an underground pipeline caved in, were found from the boot of a car in the Bin Qasim area on Sunday, police said.

They said that the Bin Qasim police signalled two cars, but their drivers did not stop. The police chased them and intercepted one of the cars in Gulshan-i-Hadeed near Al-Khidmat Hospital. During the search, the bodies of two young men were recovered from its boot, the police said.

The dead were identified as Zahid Razzaq, 36, and Abdul Ghani, 33. Two suspects — Gulbahar and Mohammed Amin — were taken into custody, they added.

The police also traced another car and arrested one more suspect, Zubair Saqib.

During the investigation, the suspects disclosed to their involvement in stealing oil from an underground pipeline. They dug up a tunnel to get an illegal connection from a warehouse but it caved in while digging and apparently the two persons, whose bodies were recovered from the car, died in the incident.

It appeared that the held suspects were transporting the bodies to somewhere else when they were caught. However, officials said they were still investigating the matter.

An Edhi Foundation spokesperson said the two had died while digging at a warehouse in Bin Qasim.

The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for completing medico-legal formalities.

Recently, two attempts to steal oil from the Pak-Arab Refinery Company (Parco) pipeline passing through the Shah Latif Town and Clifton areas have been unearthed.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2023