MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) The Forensic Science Agency of the Pakistani province of Punjab (PFSA) said on Tuesday that it collected DNA samples of 52 victims of the doomed flight PK8303 in defiance of objections from the government of the Sindh province where the plane had crashed.
Last Friday, an A320 passenger jet of Pakistani International Airlines with 99 people on board en route from the Punjab capital of Lahore crashed into a residential area near the Sindh capital of Karachi. All but two people aboard were killed in the crash.
"DNA samples of 52 deceased individuals and their families have been obtained. We will start releasing DNA reports after Wednesday," PFSA Director-General Muhammad Tahir Ashraf said, as quoted in a report by Pakistani broadcaster Geo tv.
According to the report, the Sindh government refused to let the Punjab Forensic Science Agency collect the samples the day before, claiming that it had its own forensic agency conduct sampling.
"We also have a lab at Liaquat University Jamshoro," Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare Azra Fazal Pechuho said, as quoted in the report.
The minister was further cited as claiming that the true purpose of Punjab agents arriving in Sindh was to investigate the aircraft's specifics, not the bodies.
Investigations into the crash continue, including with the participation of the plane's manufacturer, European aerospace giant Airbus.
