Pak's Multan horror: Inquiry committee demands action against Nishtar Hospital's staff for mistreating corpses

The Punjab government probe committee ended its enquiry on the pile-up of unclaimed dead bodies on the hospital's roof on Sunday and demanded action against Nishtar Hospital's staff for mistreating corpses.

The decision to pursue action against the culprits was taken during a meeting of the investigation committee, which completed its report and sent it to Punjab's additional chief secretary, reported Geo News.

The inquiry report has recommended departmental action against those involved in receiving and leaving the corpses on the rooftop, as they should have kept the dead bodies in a room.

On October 14, multiple unidentified and decomposing bodies were found lying on the rooftop of the hospital's mortuary.

Following the incident, an investigation began following orders from the province's additional chief secretary to form a six-member committee, reported Geo News.

The report further stated that the police will be responsible for taking the abandoned corpse back 28 days after sending it to the hospital. It also stated that the police and the secretary of the police union council would jointly conduct the dead body's burial.

The hospital administration and police should coordinate the burial of dead bodies, it suggested. Earlier, the hospital blamed police and rescue officials for decaying bodies on rooftops, reported Geo News.

Nishtar Medical University's (NMU) Head of Anatomy Department Dr Mariam Ashraf said that the rescue officials and police were to blame for the piling up of bodies in the morgue and on its roof.

Ashraf said that the medical facility could not refuse to accept the bodies as it was bound to take them in as safekeeping. "Police and rescue officials ask us to keep it in the hospital."

"The police and rescue officials do not take them back on time. We have written documents in which we have asked them to take the bodies. Since there is a lag, such things happen," the official said.

The hospital official said the bodies that the medical facility receives from police are usually decayed and they cannot be kept in the mortuary, reported Geo News.

"As a result of their condition, maggots start eating them -- and they can travel from one body to another. This is why, the bodies that are decaying are kept on the roof, where there are three rooms."

This comes after at least 200 rotting corpses were found on the roof of a hospital in Pakistan's Multan city on Friday while several media reports said that the bodies were recovered in dubious circumstances, indicating that those people are forcibly disappeared Baloch persons.

Pro-Baloch groups have voiced serious concern over the recovery of the dead bodies. In a statement, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) spokesperson said that the dead bodies discovered on the roof of Multan hospital and the condition of the dead bodies concern them.

"Those who were thrown on the roof inhumanely, whose flesh was being eaten by vultures and crows. These bodies were identified by Tariq Gujjar, adviser to the Chief Minister of Punjab. Despite this, the Pakistani media has suppressed this news. It also shows this reality, that is why this news is being hidden in media," the BNM spokesperson said.

"In this month, the bodies of 168 unidentified people were found in Punjab. Those who were declared unknown persons and buried," the spokesperson added.

Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) chief Allah Nazar Baloch described the recovery of hundreds of dead bodies as a huge tragedy and urged the UN and the human rights agencies to take urgent notice of the gruesome incident.

( With inputs from ANI )