Hospital shootout: Marital dispute takes innocent life

Teenage girl killed, three injured as rival groups clash.

RAWALPINDI:

A teenage girl was killed and three others sustained injuries when rival groups exchanged fire at Holy Family Hospital on Monday. The 14-year-old victim, Fatima, had come to the hospital with her ailing mother, whose blood pressure needed to be checked, hospital sources said.

The incident took place in the hospital’s emergency ward, when two rival groups hailing from Mandra, one led by Raja Qasim and other by Raja Masood, opened fired at each other and spread panic among bystanders, said a Satellite Town police official quoting eyewitnesses. As patients and hospital employees ran for shelter, three men were shot and injured and a teenage girl was fatally wounded, he said. The attackers managed to flee from the scene, abandoning a car and two 30-bore pistols, he added.

The police said that earlier, the two groups had exchanged fire in Mandra over a matrimonial issue in which a woman from the Masood family, Uzma, was shot and injured. When they brought her to the hospital for treatment at around 3pm, the other party also reached the scene and opened fire.

Investigating officer Sub Inspector Muhammad Anwar said that the teenage girl was shot in the back of her head and died instantly. He said that a criminal case has been registered but no arrests have been made so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2011.