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.

World media bodies, rights watchdog slam Geo’s closure

WASHINGTON/PARIS/ISLAMABAD: Rights watchdog Amnesty International and international media organisations on Friday condemned the suspension of Geo News licence by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and termed it politically-motivated and an attack on the freedom of press.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the Pemra’s decision and termed it politically motivated and against the commitments made to it by the Nawaz government. “We are troubled by the decision by Pakistan’s regulator to suspend the Geo News’ licence,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

“The move to shut down one of Pakistan’s largest media outlets is short-sighted and politically motivated and runs counter to the spirit of commitments Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made to the CPJ,” the CJO statement said.

A CPJ delegation met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in April and secured commitments to combat risks to journalists in Pakistan. Other US-based news organisations also expressed their shock and decried the Pemra decision.

Reporters Without Borders condemned Friday’s decision by the Pemra to suspend all broadcasting by the Geo News for 15 days.

The decision was taken in response to a Defence Ministry’s complaint to Pemra, accusing Geo News of waging a “vicious campaign, libelous and scandalous in nature” after its star talk show presenter Hamid Mir was badly injured in a targeted shooting on 19th April.

“Suspending a TV station’s licence is a grave violation of freedom of information especially when it is the country’s leading news channel,” Reporters Without Borders said.

The suspension follows a major smear campaign against Geo News that began after it broadcast claims that the intelligence agencies were behind the attack on Mir. Both the defence ministry and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) responded by accusing the Geo News of being “anti-state.”

On 20th May, several Pemra members ordered the closure of Geo News and two of its sister channels, Geo Tez and Geo Entertainment, and the withdrawal of their licences, but they were immediately overruled by other Pemra members.

Amnesty International said the Pakistan government’s suspension of Geo TV, the country’s largest private broadcaster, was a politically motivated attack on the freedom of expression and the media.

“The suspension of Geo TV is a serious attack on press freedom in Pakistan. It is the latest act in an organised campaign of harassment and intimidation targeting the network on account of its perceived bias against the military,” said Amnesty International’s Asia Director Richard Bennett in a statement on Friday.

“The Pakistani authorities must immediately reverse this ban. If there are concerns about the content of Geo TV broadcasts, the authorities should address this in line with international human rights standards – not simply move to silence a critical voice.

“The suspension of Geo TV sadly fits an all too familiar pattern in Pakistan. State authorities and other political actors use any means they can to silence critical reporting, from the use of anti-state and anti-religion provisions of the law to physical attacks and violence,” said Richard Bennett.

In a report released on 30 April, Amnesty International documented how media workers in Pakistan live under the constant threat of harassment, violence and killings from a range of state and non-state actors.

Several Jang Media Group journalists have told the Amnesty International that they have received daily threats and harassment by unknown individuals by phone and in person.Many said they dare not enter their offices or identify themselves as belonging to Geo TV or other Jang Media Group outlets for fear of being attacked.“Pakistan’s vibrant media scene deserves better protection, and journalists must be able to carry out their legitimate work without fear or interference,” said Richard Bennett.

Recovery of bodies from Korean ferry suspended

SEOUL: The operation to recover bodies from the ferry that sank off South Korea last month has been suspended due to heavy seas, a spokesman said Saturday, amid concern that many of the missing may never be found.

Seventeen days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank, 228 people have been confirmed dead with 74 still unaccounted for.

"Divers were unable to dive late Friday and early today due to fast currents and high waves whipped up by gusty winds", Coastguard spokesman Ko Myung-Suk told journalists.

More than 100 divers were on standby, waiting for the waves to die down, he said. Dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions. They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, laying on its side on the seabed at a depth of 40 meters (132 feet).They have to struggle through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.

Park Seung-Ki, spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30 kilometers (around 20 miles) from the disaster site on Friday.

As days go by, personal belongings and debris from the ship have been spotted further and further away, fuelling concerns that strong currents may have swept some bodies into the open sea.

As a precaution, recovery workers put rings of netting around the site days ago.

The relatives of those still missing are insisting that all the bodies be recovered before efforts begin to raise the sunken ferry.

The Sewol capsized on April 16 with 476 people on board -- more than 300 of them from the same Danwon High School in Ansan city, just south of Seoul.

It is one of South Korea´s worst peacetime disasters but public anger and frustration has been amplified due to greed and irresponsibility being blamed for the poor handling of the catastrophe.

The captain and 14 of his crew have been arrested for being the first to leave the ship without helping all passengers to safety.

The Sewol´s regular captain, who was off duty on the day of the accident, has told prosecutors that the ferry operator -- Chonghaejin Marine Co -- "brushed aside" repeated warnings that the 20-year-old ship had stability issues following a renovation in 2012.Two Chonghaejin officials were arrested on Friday on charges of having the ferry overloaded well beyond its legal limit.

The ferry owners have also become the focus of an ever-widening probe.

The government has come under strong criticism over the initially slow rescue response as well as lax safety standards and collusion between industry and regulators, which were partly blamed for the scale of the disaster.

Race to recover bodies from Korea ferry as storms loom

SEOUL: Dive teams raced Friday to pull more than 100 bodies from a sunken South Korean ferry as storm clouds loomed and the victims´ families angrily pressed officials to wrap up the recovery effort.

The confirmed death toll stood at 183, but 119 people remained unaccounted for -- their bodies believed still trapped in the submerged vessel that capsized on April 16 with 476 people on board.

Although all hope of finding survivors has been extinguished, there is still anger and deep frustration among the relatives over the pace of the recovery operation off the southern island of Jindo.

Gentle tides and good weather have helped the dive teams in recent days, but the search conditions inside the ferry are still challenging and rescuers are only managing to retrieve around 30 bodies a day.

Making up the bulk of the passengers on the 6,825 tonne Sewol when it sank were 325 high school students -- around 250 of whom are either confirmed or presumed dead.

On Thursday evening, a group of irate parents stormed into the Jindo office of the deputy head of the South Korean coastguard and roughly manhandled him down to the island harbour.

He was kept there most of the night, sitting on the ground, along with coastguard chief Kim Seok-Kyun and Marine Minister Lee Ju-Young, while the relatives accused them of lying about the recovery operation and demanded they bring in more resources.

Police made no move to intervene and the three made no attempt to get away, reflecting a reluctance to antagonise the relatives in any way at a time of widespread public anger over the official response to the disaster.

The bereaved families have said they want all the remaining bodies removed from the ferry before the weekend -- a demand that is unlikely to be met, especially with a bad weather front moving in.

"We know that weather conditions will worsen considerably and currents will become stronger from Saturday," a coastguard spokesman told a press briefing.

An earlier coastguard statement said storm warnings could be issued on Saturday or Sunday for the area around the rescue site.

Rescuers have not found a single survivor since 174 people were pulled to safety on the day of the accident.

It took divers working in difficult and dangerous conditions more than two days to get into the sunken ferry and two more days to retrieve the first bodies.

Many relatives believe some of the victims may have survived for several days in trapped air pockets, but perished in the cold water after no rescue came.

As a result some have asked for autopsies to be performed, to see if it would be possible to determine the precise cause and time of death.

The Sewol´s captain, Lee Joon-Seok, and 10 crew members have been arrested on charges ranging from criminal negligence to abandoning passengers.

The captain has been particularly criticised for delaying the evacuation order until the ferry was listing so sharply that escape was almost impossible.

Prosecutors have raided a host of businesses affiliated with the ferry operator, the Chonghaejin Marine Company, as part of an overall probe into corrupt management.

Karachi: Two bodies found in Manghopir

KARACHI: Bodies of two unknown men have been found in Manghopir area of the city, Geo News reported on Wednesday.

According to reports, the bodies were stuffed in gunnybags. The men were shot in the head. Rescue sources said that the bodies have been shifted to a hospital for medico-legal formalities.