Human Remains found in Mass Graves in Mexico Suspected to Be of Missing Students

At least 28 badly burned remains were found in mass graves in the southern Mexico city of Iguala believed to belong to the group of 43 students missing since clashes with police in end-September.

The students of a radical teacher training college clashed with the corrupt local police and then were reported missing. Three students died in shootings related to the clashes .

The bodies were doused in petrol and burned before they were buried. Guerrero state attorney general Iñaky Blanco Cabrera told reporters Sunday that it could take two weeks to two months to identify the bodies and DNA samples of 37 relatives of the students had already been collected, reports The Guardian.

Security officials investigating the matter believe that the victims were forced up the hillside, executed and buried in six graves.

Gang members, held as suspects in the case, tipped off the police about the mass graves and said that the local police handed them over to the drug cartels.

Locals blame drug cartels in cahoots with the police abducted some of the students.

"You really can't call them police," an official said, standing on the hillside above Iguala, reports the Guardian.

The disappearance of the students has led to mass protests by the parents and students and faculty of the teacher training institute. If the graves are of the students, this will be the worst slaughter since the drug war started since 2006.

The National Human Rights Commission opened its own investigation into the case for possible "serious human rights abuses" by the Iguala city police, reports Agence France Presse.

In a statement issued Sunday, the Commission warned about the "delicate" situation in Guerrero, where poverty, social unrest and drug related violence are common.