Quetta, 6 April (AKI/DAWN) - The bodies of victims of a human smuggling racket found in a container truck near Quetta on Saturday were due to be taken to Kabul on Monday by an Afghan cargo plane. Over 60 migrants were found suffocated in the container and some were believed to have been dead for days.

‘A special plane will arrive here from Kabul tomorrow morning for taking the bodies to Afghanistan,’ Afghan consul general Mohammad Daud Mohsani said on Sunday. The bodies would be transported by road if the plane could not be arranged, he added.

After completing legal formalities, the local administration handed over the bodies of the Afghan nationals to the humanitarian aid group, Edhi Foundation. ‘We will hand over the coffins to the Afghan authorities at Quetta airport,’ Edhi sources said.

Security personnel were deployed at the hospital where survivors were undergoing treatment. Over 110 people were inside the container, most of of whom were unconscious when police unlocked it.

‘Cases have been registered against the survivors under the Foreigners Act and around a dozen of them have been taken into custody,’ sources told Pakistani daily Dawn, adding that they would be interrogated in order to trace the culprits involved in the human smuggling case in both countries.

A team of the Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrived here from Islamabad to investigate the case.

An investigation team of FIA and other agencies also visited Chaman and met several people. Five suspects are reported to have been detained.

Sources told Dawn four suspects named as Gul Agha, Wazir Mohammad, Mullah Gul Mohammad and Wali Mohammad were involved in arranging the container to smuggle the migrants to Iran.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also ordered an investigation.

The Afghan consul general in Quetta said the Afghans found involved in the "inhuman" act would be brought to justice and he would also appeal to the Pakistan government to punish those responsible for the tragedy.

He said both countries should work jointly to deal with the elements running the human smuggling racket.

"As (Afghans) are badly treated at checkpoints, arrested and taken away by the FIA and sent to prison to be sent back after one month, they are compelled to adopt ways which can put their lives at risk," the Afghan diplomat said.

He was speaking at Quetta's Civil Hospital where he had gone to meet the survivors.

"If both the countries agree to provide travel facilities to refugees, such incidents can be reduced," he added.

The consul general thanked the government for providing medical and other facilities to the survivors.

Most survivors were in a state of shock. They included a dozen teenagers most of whom came from Kapisa province near Kabul and speak Farsi.

According to the sources; the smugglers had brought 64 Afghan nationals from Kabul and another 37 from the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak opposite the oil and gas rich southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

‘They put all of us in the container on Friday afternoon and locked it,’ 20-year-old Shamsur Rehman said from hospital.

When the air-conditioner stopped working, he said, they started screaming, but the driver did not listen and he and the other people fell unconscious.

Gul Zameen, who was discharged from hospital, said he and other people in the container had paid 4,000 to 8,000 US dollars to the Afghan agents who had arranged the truck in Spin Buldak.

"We are all poor and wanted to find jobs in Quetta and Iran," said Zameen.

The FIA and other investigating agencies were conducting raids in the border town of Chaman and in Quetta for the human smugglers and the truck’s driver and cleaner who had escaped after parking the container at Hazar Gangi stand.