Doctors’ kidnappings: Victims’ families, police still clueless

No enmities, threats, motives ascertained; medical fraternity decries lack of security.

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD:

The recent kidnappings of doctors from the twin cities have sent a wave of fear across the medical fraternity, who are demanding increased security and the immediate recovery of their colleagues.

Over the past month, three doctors have reportedly been kidnapped as the twin cities’ police are still searching for clues of the victims’ whereabouts.

The kidnapped doctors didn’t have enmity with anyone nor were they involved with any group or received threats, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“We are ready to pay the ransom but we at least have the right to know whether they are dead or alive,” said Shaukatullah, the brother of Dr Hazratullah, who was kidnapped on June 25 along with his friend Badrul Islam after they had gone to Pirwadhai and then Kohat to recover Islam’s stolen car.

“The kidnappers contacted us once and asked us to arrange the ransom but we have not heard from them since,” he said while speaking to The Express Tribune.

He said that the Islamabad police had not been cooperating with them, which had forced him to make a request to lodge an FIR in Kohat.



“We will be taking a risk by going to Kohat, which is one of the most dangerous cities in Pakistan,” he said. My brother is a resident of Islamabad, why couldn’t something have been done from here?” he asked.

On the other hand, Islamabad Medical and Dental College (IMDC) Pediatrics Department Head Dr Allaudin has been missing since June 11. He had parked his car in Doctors Town, where he resides, and had gone to a nearby private hospital. The police and his family have been searching for whereabouts ever since.

“We have not received a single call from anyone. Every day, his children ask us where their father is and we have no answers,” said Dr Allaudin’s brother-in-law, Fuad Niazi.

When contacted, Koral Superintendent of Police (SP) Muhammad Bin Ashraf, who is heading the investigation team to find Dr Allauddin, confirmed that there had been no breakthrough in the case had thus far.

“We have collected his mobile phone records, interrogated his friends and relatives and checked his personal emails but have found no evidence that could lead us to suspect anyone of being involved in his kidnapping,” said Ashraf.

Renowned physician Dr Javed Iqbal was also kidnapped from outside the Bilal Memorial Hospital in Sadiqabad, Rawalpindi by four armed persons on June 19.

The police said that the captors, driving in a white Toyota Corolla from Afandi Colony, had intercepted Dr Iqbal, pushed him into their car and sped away.

Sadiqabad SP Jamat Ali Bukhari refused to comment on the case. Another Sadiqabad police official requesting anonymity said the investigation team had yet to find any clues of the Dr Iqbal’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile the Young Doctors Association’s federal chapter, during an oath-taking ceremony at Polyclinic Hospital, strongly condemned the doctors’ kidnapping and urged law-enforcement agencies to take prompt action to recover them.

YDA Federal Chapter Chairperson Dr Muhammad Haroon said lamented the government’s lack of effort in pursuing the cases and their inability to provide the doctors adequate security.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2013.