Post-surgery: Jinnah Avenue gunman stable, refuses to talk to police

Wife discharged from hospital.

ISLAMABAD:

Muhammad Sikandar, the gunman involved in the five-hour standoff with the police on Jinnah Avenue on Thursday, is presently stable according to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) officials.

Sikander is in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) and has started talking, but “it’s too early to declare him completely stable. After the surgery, he’s prone to developing complications,” said Pims Spokesperson Dr Waseem Khawaja, while talking to The Express Tribune. He added that “he is complaining about severe pain in his leg and chest where he received the bullets.”  Sikander has refused to give a statement to the police.



Meanwhile his wife, Kanwal, who is now stable and has been declared mentally fit by the head of psychiatry department, was discharged from the hospital. To avoid the media and due to security concerns, the police escorted her out from Pims from the back door.

Sources in Pims said that Sikanadar had talked to a team of psychiatrists and had denied allegations of drug addiction. He told the head of the psychiatrists’ team that he would explain the reason behind his actions in the next meeting, but that he was satisfied with what he did, added the sources.

An increase in the number of security personnel in the surgical ward led to an exchange of harsh words between the police and the Pims staff.



The latter were of the view that no security official should be deputed inside the ICU as it made it difficult to provide treatment to Sikander, according to the sources. The police officials were of the view that there was a need to depute a security official in civvies inside the ICU to prevent an unauthorised person from going inside dressed like a doctor.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2013.