15 booked in organ trade case

Police say raids underway to arrest fleeing suspects

RAWALPINDI:

Taxila police on Tuesday registered a case against a gang involved in illegal kidney transplants and nominated at least 15 members in the FIR.

The case has been registered a day after Taxila police along with a team of the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA) busted the racket involved in illegal organ and arrested a doctor, a nurse and their two assistants after a raid on a house located in a private housing society.

Police earlier said that at least nine ‘facilitators’ of the gang escaped the scene after the raid at the house.

According to the FIR, during the preliminary investigation, the police have obtained information from two agents involved in the illegal sale and purchase of human kidneys.

At least 15 people including two agents, three patients, a doctor and an anesthetist have been nominated in the case registered at the Taxila police station.

According to the police, on the morning of March 27, a house was raided in a private housing society in Taxila on a tip-off about the illegal kidney transplantation.

According to the FIR, PHOTA Assistant Director Vigilance Hassan Akhtar and Vigilance Team member Mujahid Abbas raided the house along with the police team.

It said that a kidney transplant operation was going on in the illegal operation theatre set up inside the house.

Kidney seller Shahid Ali’s kidney was being transplanted to Basir Khan, a resident of Peshawar. Apart from the patients, Dr Fawad Mumtaz, who had surgical instruments in his hand, was detained, nurse Sobia Ismail, Mohammad Sharif and Mohammad Hasnain were detained.

During the raid, agent Shaukat Hussain, involved in human organ trafficking, agent Mirza Khan alias Durrani, a resident of Quetta managed to escape, the FIR said.

The others who escaped from the spot were Anjum Zubair, Mohammad Moeez cashier, Abubakar Ismail Medicine Supplier, Dr Basir Anesthetist, facilitator Tariq Mehmood and Aqib Noor Khan.

According to the FIR, a smartphone was recovered from the spot, which was seized and sent to Lahore for forensics.

In the FIR, kidney seller Shahid Ali and kidney recipient Basir Khan have been named in the case for illegal transplantation.

The police said that sections 9, 10 and 11 of the Punjab Human Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissues Act, 2012, among other provisions, have been inserted in the FIR.

The police said that Assistant Sub-Inspector Mohmand Khan has been appointed as the plaintiff in the case so that the evidence collected against the accused and other evidence can be presented before the court and the accused can be punished by the courts.

According to the police, the accused Shahid Ali, Muhammad Sharif, who sold the kidneys, and Basir Khan, who did the illegal kidney transplant, have been transferred from Benazir Bhutto Hospital to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology Hospital, where doctors were treating them.

On March 13, the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA) and Rawalpindi police raided a private hospital in Morgah involved in illegal organ transplants of patients and arrested 10 people including three doctors.

The arrested suspects were identified as Dr Zahid, Dr Athar and Dr Abid Latif, Israr Hussain, Arshad Mehmood, Shahzad, Shahnawaz, Muhammad Imran, Asim and Anas-ur-Rehman. The trial is ongoing in the local court.

Police also seized Rs20 million in cash from the private hospital and rounded up 15 patients, including a foreigner. Preliminary investigations revealed that the laws were being blatantly violated during kidney transplants at the private hospital. Huge sums were being charged to the kidney recipients.

The police said that so far three gangs involved in illegal kidney transplants have been arrested in Rawalpindi.

Earlier, the Rawat police arrested three suspected traffickers including two nurses from the Jand area of Rawalpindi.

The Rawat police arrested a man and two nurses who were allegedly involved in the illegal organ trade and transplantation of kidneys.

According to the police, the arrested man was the brother of the victim, whose kidney had been removed without his consent at the illegal facility in a private housing society located in the vicinity of Rawat.

Police said that the arrested man, identified as Bhoota, had fraudulently sent his brother to the facility where his kidney was removed by the organ traffickers.

According to police sources, during the investigation, it transpired that Bhoota had deceptively sent his brother, the victim, to the facility for Rs0.2 million.

The accused Dr Imran, who has gone into hiding after the Rawalpindi police arrested his accomplice, Saqib Ali, while he was carrying in his vehicle the man who had his kidney removed at the health facility.

The police also recovered surgical equipment and a vehicle during the raid on two houses in the private housing society. The two houses in the housing society were being used for the illegal organ trade

The police said that the houses had been rented by the accused for carrying out the illegal organ trade.

Police have busted three gangs involved in illegal organ trade within less than two months.

The police said that they have extended the scope of the investigation and the operations will continue to arrest more suspects involved in the illegal transplantation of human organs in Rawalpindi.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2023.