QUETTA: The mystery shrouding identity of one of the two men killed in a suspected US drone strike in Balochistan, in which Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour is believed to be killed, could not be resolved till Tuesday.
After US authorities claimed to have killed Mansour in a drone strike, local residents gathered in Ahmed Wal area of Balochistan’s Noshki district around two unidentified dead bodies near a destroyed vehicle in which Mansour was believed to be travelling in, around 160 kilometres west of Quetta.
The bodies, charred beyond recognition, were shifted to civil hospital Quetta where one of the victims was identified by his brother as Muhammad Azam of Taftan area. He was said to be a taxi driver, a private television channel reported.
The second man was identified with the help of an undamaged passport and a computerised national identity card found near the burnt car bearing his name Muhammad Wali, the resident of Chaman.
Pakistani authorities said the passport contained a visa for Iran.
There are no reports on whereabouts of Mansour’s body. It is suspected that Mansour used to carry fake travel papers in the cover name of Muhammad Wali and was killed along with his driver.
However, the US claim of his death is yet to be officially confirmed by Pakistan government that summoned US Ambassador to Islamabad David Hale, yesterday, to lodge a protest for carrying out the drone strike on Pakistan’s soil.
Even authorities in Balochistan did not confirm that the body lying in the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta was that of the Taliban chief’s.
Reports said a sample has been collected from the corpse for a DNA test which will be conducted in Islamabad as Quettalacks the facility.
But the mystery further deepened today when a man approached hospital authorities and claimed the body.
According to our correspondent, the man Muhammad Rafiq declared him as nephew of Muhammad Wali and resident of Qilla Saifullah district. He later took the body along with him.
“No one from the hospital staff recognized the man and knew of whereabouts of the body,” our correspondent says, adding that phone number and residential address mentioned by the man in hospital papers were also wrong.
There was no official word on this incident from Balochistan government or any official concerned.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti announced to compensate family members of Muhammad Azam, asserting that authorities have been looking at all aspects of the drone attack.
