Karachi: Four bodies recovered from Baldia Town

KARACHI: Four bodies bearing torture marks and hands tied behind their back were recovered from Baldia Town area of Karachi on Monday morning, Geo News reported.

According to police, four blind-folded bodies were found from Rais Goth area of Baldia Town today morning. The bodies had torture marks and bullet wounds while their hands were tied behind their back

The spent shells of 9mm pistol were also recovered near the bodies.

The bodies were shifted to the hospital for medico-legal formalities and identification purpose, however, the identity of the deceased could not be ascertained until the last report was filed.

Seven bodies recovered from cargo complex handed over to families

KARACHI: The corpses of seven unfortunate persons who were trapped in cold storage of the cargo complex at the Karachi airport were handed over to their families after identification on Tuesday, Geo News reported.

The rescue teams had recovered the seven bodies 28 hours after the attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for identification as they were burnt and unrecognizable.

The teams of Army Engineering Core, Rangers, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and others took part in the rescue operation.

Senior MLO JPMC Dr Kaleem Sheikh told that the relatives of the deceased recognized their beloved family members with the help of their possessions including mobile phones and some other items that were present with the dead bodies.

The deceased who were identified included Sultan, Saifur Rehman, Farhanul Haq, Nabeel Ahmed, Faizan Ahmed, Enayatullah and Fareedullah.

The MLO further told the body parts that were brought to the hospital were of Jaman who was the members of the Airport Security Force (ASF).

MLO Dr Kaleem further told that DNA samples of the victims have been collected to ascertain their identity and the process will approximately take three weeks.

It is pertinent to mention that during the attack, local employees of a foreign company took refuge in the cargo complex; however, they could not come out after the fire erupted in the vicinity.

1,000 ounces of gold recovered from sunken ship

CHARLESTON: An expedition to bring back the remaining gold from a steamship that sank in 1857 off South Carolina in one of the nation's worst maritime disasters has recovered almost 1,000 ounces of gold - the first gold recovered from the wreck in almost a quarter century.

The S.S. Central America was bringing gold back from the California when it sank in a hurricane claiming 425 lives. In addition, thousands of pounds of gold went to the bottom aboard the 280-foot, side-wheel steamship.

About $50 million was recovered during expeditions to the wreck in the late 1980s and early 1990s before legal disputes shut down the operation.

Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Florida, announced Monday that almost 1,000 ounces of the gold was recovered during a reconnaissance dive last month.

The newly recovered gold includes five gold bars and two $20 Double Eagle gold coins. One of the coins was minted in San Francisco the year that the Central America sank. The gold bars weigh between 106 and 344 ounces.

"While we weren't planning to recover gold so quickly, it did confirm that the site has not been disturbed since it was last visited in 1991 and there is gold remaining," said Mark Gordon, Odyssey's president and chief operating officer.

An expedition that left North Charleston in April is expected to be on the site about 160 miles off the coast until late summer. Gordon said that in recent weeks the crew of 41 aboard the Odyssey Explorer has been conducting an extensive survey of the site and the recovery of more gold will begin once that is completed.

It is not clear how much gold might remain. The ship was carrying gold bars shipped by banks and commercial interests. Passengers were thought to be carrying a lot of gold of their own in the form of coins - perhaps an amount equaling the commercial shipment.

The initial expeditions 25 years ago were halted because of legal disputes.

One of them involved investors from Ohio who staked out the money for shipwreck enthusiast Tommy Thompson, an Ohio native, who led the 1988 expedition that recovered the initial cache of gold.

The investors claimed they had fronted Thompson almost $13 million but never saw any return. Thompson has been a fugitive for almost two years after failing to show up for a court hearing.

A deal approved by an Ohio judge in March cleared the way for the new expedition.

The receiver for Thompson's companies will get more than half of anything that is recovered, to be disbursed in part to the investors who backed the initial expedition.