Pakistan on Saturday set up a judicial commission to probe the crash of a private passenger plane that killed 127 persons and took the owner of the airline into "protective" custody.

Announcing the formation of the judicial commission, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said without investigation, no conclusion could be reached about the reasons behind the Bhoja Air Boeing 737-200 crash last evening.

Of the victims, 118 bodies had been identified while rescue teams on the site of the crash near the Islamabad airport claimed to have recovered severed body parts of all the 127 dead.

An initial investigation report compiled with information received from the air traffic control has revealed that the plane was flying at the speed of 500 km per hour which caused the fuel tank to burst resulting in a mid-air explosion, scattering debris for miles around.

Gilani, who visited the state-run PIMS hospital in Islamabad where badly mutilated bodies of the victims including women and children had been shifted, told reporters that many of the bodies had been handed over to the next of kin after identification while the remaining would be given after the DNA tests which may take some time.