ISLAMABAD: Five bullet-riddled bodies found hanging from an electric pole in southwestern Pakistan last week were Afghan nationals and have been returned to their families, Kabul’s embassy in Islamabad said Thursday.

The bodies were discovered on Friday near a college in Dalbandin city, close to the borders with Afghanistan and Iran in Balochistan province.

A statement from the Afghan embassy in Pakistan’s capital said the bodies were handed over to families at the Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing on Wednesday shared between the neighbours.

Their consulate in Balochistan made “serious efforts” to return the bodies to waiting relatives in Afghanistan.

“The five Afghans were brutally killed by unknown people,” said the statement shared with AFP on Thursday.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s least populous but largest province, is home to several groups, some fighting for independence or a greater share of the region’s mineral resources, with security forces often the target of bombings. Islamist groups are also behind sectarian violence in the region.

Some 600,000 Afghans have travelled to Pakistan since the Taliban took back power in 2021, and implemented their austere version of Islam.