Botched rescue?: As mystery shrouds exact details, FIR of neurosurgeon’s killing registered

Dr Aftab Ahmed Qureshi was killed during a police raid to rescue him from kidnappers.

HYDERABAD:

The case of the killing of neurosurgeon Dr Aftab Ahmed Qureshi during a police raid was registered with the Bhitai Nagar police on Thursday.

Anti-Violent Crime Cell Karachi Inspector Waseem Siddiqui was the complainant in the FIR, according to SHO Muhammad Ali Shah.

Qureshi, 56, was kidnapped in Karachi on May 12 while he was leaving his clinic, and was killed during an operation launched for his rescue by the cell and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee on Wednesday. He was the neurosurgery department chairman at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro.

The encounter had also claimed the lives of ASI Rashid Khan Tanoli and a suspect, Muhammad Akhtar Siyal.

The inspector has nominated the suspected kidnapper in the FIR under sections 302, 324, 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 617 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. According to him, the alleged kidnapper was shot dead by a policeman, Shabbir Khoso, posted at the Nasim Nagar police station.

However, the time of Siyal’s killing was reported to be around 5:30 am, which is in contrast to the earlier version of the Hyderabad police, who had said that they reached the spot at around 5 am when the raid was over.

Ashok Kumar Malhi and his mother Kamla Devi, who were taken into custody from the bungalow where the kidnapped surgeon was being kept, are still being investigated for their involvement.

SHO Shah told The Express Tribune that Malhi had been claiming to be a doctor who was kidnapped from Memon Goth in Karachi. “But we have found no evidence to corroborate his claim as yet,” he said. “We suspect that he was involved in the whole episode.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association and Liaquat university have called for a judicial inquiry into the raid. The doctors staged a demonstration and offered a symbolic Namaz-e-Janaza for the slain doctor. Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi condemned the way law enforcers carried out the operation.

The university’s academic council demanded that the Supreme Court or Sindh High Court investigate the incident. The council is naming a new lecture hall after Dr Qureshi and offering employment to his children. The university will also ask the governor to award him a Sitara-e-Imtiaz posthumously, the council decided.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2012.