Panic gripped the area after locals found a pack of dogs feasting on a dead body dumped in a vacant plot on Friday in Peeru Banda in Salem Tabri, police said.

According to police, the body was decomposed beyond identification and it seemed that it was set on fire before being dumped.

The Salem Tabri police sent the body to the civil hospital for postmortem. The police also made announcements in the surrounding areas for the identification of the body. A forensic team was also summoned to collect the evidence from the spot.

Raj Kumar, a local, stated that a commuter noticed the dead body being eaten by a pack of dogs. He raised the alarm and informed the police.

According to the police, as per the prima facie, the assailants had dumped the body here after killing the victim somewhere else.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, North) Jayant Puri, said that it is not yet known if the victim is a man or a woman and things will be cleared after postmortem. The police are scanning the CCTVs to trace the accused who dumped the body here.

It is a second such incident in the past 23 days when the assailants have dumped a body after executing a murder. On January 31, body of a woman was found in a vacant area near Bagga Kalan village near Ladhowal Ring Road. The body was wrapped in a bedsheet. The autopsy report had suggested that the woman had undergone an abortion before being murdered.

The FIR has been lodged under sections 302 (murder), 318 (concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC against unidentified assailants.