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Another mass grave discovered in Azerbaijan's Khojaly

Preliminary findings show at least four people, including a child, were tortured, tied with ropes, and buried at the site at least 25 years ago, says Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office.

Others

Earlier this month, a mass grave containing the bodies of eight people was found in the Askeran province upon a statement from Rashid Beglaryan, a suspected perpetrator of the Khojaly massacre.

A new mass grave has been discovered in Azerbaijan's Khojaly, a district in the country's Karabakh region that has been the site of mass killings and burials since the First Karabakh War.

An investigation discovered bone fragments, which were then collected for laboratory examination and expert analysis, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement on Friday.

Its district office in Khojaly received information on Wednesday about human remains discovered during excavations in the city centre near a former carpet factory conducted as part of restoration and construction efforts.

A team from the prosecutor's office, other government bodies, and the Azerbaijan delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was forwarded to the location.

"As a result of the procedural actions carried out until now, the human remains discovered in the area belong to at least four people (one of them, presumably, a four to five-year-old child); it was determined that they were being tortured, tied with ropes, and buried at least 25 years ago," the statement said.

The criminal department of the Prosecutor General's Office has launched a full investigation into the incident, with updates to be publicly available.

In photos: Commemorating Khojaly massacre, pursuing justice 32 years on

The Khojaly massacre

The Karabakh region had been the site of mass killings and burials since the First Karabakh War in the early 1990s.

During the war, the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions, including Khojaly.

The town was the site of a two-hour Armenian offensive that killed 613 Azerbaijani civilians including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people. 487 others were seriously injured according to Azerbaijani figures.

Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during what has now been called the Khojaly massacre remain missing, eight families being completely wiped out.