ISLAMABAD, DEC 08, (DNA) – Remains of victims of the PIA PK-661 have been brought to Islamabad for DNA testing.

Six people have been identified while families of the deceased have been directed to submit their DNA samples for testing.

According to State Minister Tariq Fazl Chaudhry, DNA sampling may take 6-8 days.

A PIA plane carrying 47 people crashed Wednesday on a domestic flight from the mountainous northern city of Chitral to Islamabad, killing all on board.

The plane took off from Chitral around 3:50PM and PIA said the plane crashed at 1642 local time (1142 GMT) in the Havelian area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 125 km north of Islamabad.

DNA samples are being taken at PIMS Hospital in Islamabad where victim families have gathered. Authorities said help desks have been established at the hospital for families of the victims.

DNA sampling may take six to eight days, state minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said, adding that remains of singer-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed has not yet been identified.

“The bodies were burnt so badly we could not recognise whether they were women or men,” a villager in his thirties, who declined to give his name.

“We put into sacks whatever we could find… and carried them down to the ambulance.”Six of the victims had already been identified through fingerprints, according to Ali Baz, another official at the Ayub Medical Complex.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has urged to complete the process of inquiry of PIA crash. Addressing a high-level meeting in Islamabad, he directed for detailed, independent, and transparent inquiry into the unfortunate crash in order to bring facts before the public.

The Prime minister also directed that a senior officer from the Air Force should be co-opted as a member of the inquiry committee.

Nawaz Sharif directed PIA administration to reach out to the affected families and facilitate them in every way to lessen the burden of their grief.