KARACHI: Families of almost all victim of the Saturday tragic accident on the RCD Highway near Hub are anxiously waiting for the identification of the bodies of their loved ones so that they could take the coffins home for burial. But, it appears that their wait is not going to be over anytime soon.

At least 36 people were killed when two passenger coaches and a pickup rammed into an overturned truck on the RCD Highway near Hub. All the vehicles caught fire after the collision since at least one coach and the truck were allegedly carrying oil smuggled from Iran. The bodies of all the victims, some of them said to be employees of Pakistan Navy, were charred beyond recognition.

Family members of the accident victims continued to camp outside the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth, where the bodies were taken from the site of the accident, for a second consecutive day on Sunday. The mourners were just waiting for authorities’ nod to take the bodies of their loved ones for burial.

However, the body of one of the 36 victims was identified and handed over to his family on Sunday, while samples had been taken from the remaining 35 bodies for carrying out DNA tests for identification.

“Only one body was handed over to a victim family,” said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation. “That particular body was recognisable to some extent. Health officials are taking DNA samples to identify remaining 35 victims. They have sent samples to a forensic laboratory in Islamabad and the process may take 10 to 15 days to complete.”

FIR lodged against ‘deceased drivers’

The Balochistan police blamed three now dead drivers for the Saturday deadly accident and nominated them in an FIR on Sunday.

A senior official said that the police had reasons to believe that three of the four drivers were killed in the accident. The driver of the fourth vehicle, he said, had escaped after the accident.

“We have registered an FIR,” Lasbella district police officer (DPO) Ahmed Nawaz Cheema told Dawn. “Since the drivers have not been identified yet, the FIR has been registered against three unidentified drivers. There are obvious signs and our initial investigations also suggest that they were killed (in the accident) and actually it was their negligence which led to the tragedy.”

About the fourth driver, he said, the investigators believed that the driver of the fourth vehicle somehow remained safe and run away after the accident. Efforts were also being made to ascertain his fate and trace his whereabouts, he added.

Inspector Hasil Khan of the Hub police said that the FIR was regisered under Sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 319 (punishment for qatl-i-khata) and 320 (punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving) of the Pakistan Penal Code on behalf of the state.

Meanwhile, there was no word from any official over the core issue of oil smuggling or to trace key players behind the illegal transportation of the smuggled Iranian oil, which has become a regular feature of Karachi-Balochistan buss.

“We have enhanced patrolling in areas under our jurisdiction and we are not allowing a single vehicle carrying (smuggled) oil,” said DPO Cheema. “We are also coordinating with all agencies concerned which include anti-smuggling bodies so that no such incident recurs due to any negligence.”