Police recover bodies of two missing doctors

Officials await post-mortem reports to determine cause of death

RAWALPINDI: The bodies of two doctors, who were allegedly abducted while travelling between Attock and Islamabad last week, were found near a small dam in the Dhok Soba area of Punjab early on Monday morning.

Police said that they had shifted the bodies of Dr Aziz Ahmed and Dr Iftikhar to a hospital for postmortem.

Dr Iftikhar is said to be an American citizen of Pakistani origin who lived and practised medicine in the US along with his family.

He was reportedly visiting the country for construction on his property. His companion, Dr Aziz, was apparently the caretaker of Dr Iftikhar’s property.

Dr Iftikhar’s brother, Imtiaz, told the police that the last time he spoke to his brother was when he had called to inform them while returning to Islamabad from Attock.

Later, when Dr Iftikhar did not return home, he tried calling on his cellular phone and of that of Dr Aziz but received no response.

Earlier, the police had registered a case for abduction against unidentified kidnappers on an application filed by Imtiaz. In which he had allegedly claimed that there was a dispute over the land between the victims and their opponents. Officers said that they had found the corpses in a bloated condition, explaining that this was probably because the bodies had been submerged in water for a long period of time.

They, however, said that the cause of death for the two doctors was not immediately clear, adding that they will have to wait for the autopsy reports before they could conclusively say whether it was a murder case or something else.

Meanwhile, the police have approached the relevant officials for recovering their mobile data in a bid to determine whether they had any enmity with anyone and to see where they had been.

They added that they were investigating the matter from different angles. Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the incident and sought a report from the Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO) on the matter.

“Legal action should be taken against the people responsible for the incident.”

Firing in capital seminary

At least two incidents of firing took place in the federal capital within the remits of different police stations.

Two brothers, who were enrolled in the Madrasah Qurtaba, near Sultana Foundation within the remits of the Koral police station, were allegedly not provided lunch during the break while all other students received it.

Angered, the brothers complained to their father Javed Satti, who headed to the Madrasah to record his protest with the Madrasah administrator Qari Mujeebur Rehman.

This, however, provoked the administrator who took out his pistol and started firing which caused fear and panic in the madrasah.

However, no casualties were reported.

Later, the police raided the seminary and arrested the suspect while 15 other madrasah students, including the two brothers and Satti, were shifted to the police station.

In another incident of firing in the capital, a youngster managed to narrowly escaped death within the remits of the Karachi Company police station.

A well-placed source told that Rashid was in Sector G-8 when he saw another youngster, known to be Ali, was told not to drive recklessly on the roads.

Ali left that area, only to return a short while later accompanied by eight accomplices and started firing. The applicant managed to narrowly escape the onslaught.

The police have yet to arrest the suspect.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2019.