KARACHI - Police on Wednesday exhumed the bodies of a couple, which had eloped to get married and killed by their families in the name of honour.

The bodies were exhumed at a local graveyard for the postmortem.

The forensic experts and the doctors, however, confirmed that the victims were electrocuted while their bodies also bore marks of torture.

The bodies were secretly buried in Maula Madad graveyard in Sherpao Colony in District Malir. “Both the bodies have been exhumed under the supervision of the magistrate for the chemical examination and the postmortem,” explained District Malir SSP Rao Anwar.

Besides magistrate and senior police officials, a team of forensic experts and doctors, including a police surgeon Aijaz Khokhar, lady medico-legal officer Sumaiya Saeed, head of the forensic department of Jinnah Sindh Medical University Dr Farhat Mirza and Civil Hospital, Karachi in-charge Dr Qarar Abbasi were also present on the occasion.

“It has now been confirmed that the couple was given electric shocks,” explained Dr Qarar Abbasi. He said that not only the victims were electrocuted but they were also tortured before getting killed.

“The girl had an electrocution mark in her shoulder while also had torture marks in her shoulders and feet,” Dr Abbasi explained. “The boy had electrocution marks in different parts of his body, including ears, shoulders, chest, head and feet and had also torture marks in his body.” Dr Abbasi said that it was for the first time when he had witnessed such a brutality over honour.

He said that doctors had released their initial report which confirmed that the victims were electrocuted while the samples had also been taken to ascertain whether the victims were also given poison or not. SSP Anwar said that four suspects including victims’ fathers and uncles had already been arrested while a key suspect has reportedly escaped from the city, apparently to Rawalpindi while a special police team, headed by Shah Latif SHO Amanullah Marwat has been dispatched for his arrest.

A teenaged couple was electrocuted by their family members in the mid of August after they eloped from their homes to get married of their own freewill.

Their families, however, later secretly buried the bodies at a graveyard in Sherpao Colony.

Police came to know about the dual murder through an informer and the case was registered on behalf of the state.