Quetta losing professionals

The prevailing security situation in Balochistan has compelled many inhabitants to seek any opportunity to escape the troubled province. The people of Balochistan still live with their tribes and ethnic groups and are easily able to recognise that violent acts are the work of outsiders and criminal groups.

In recent years there has been a sharp rise in kidnappings of doctors in Quetta. As many as 26 doctors have been kidnapped and only freed after payment of huge ransoms. The All Pakistan Medical Association (APMA) in Balochistan reports that over the past five or six years, 18 doctors have been killed in targeted attacks and around 88 have left the province. Two doctors, Din Mohammed Mari and Akbari Baloch, remain missing. Dr Munaf Tareen, who was kidnapped last year and released after his family paid a reported Rs200 million, initially admitted that a ransom had been paid but later denied it.

Doctors in Balochistan offer a soft target because they do not carry arms and their families can easily be intimidated into paying large sums for the release of their relatives. Most doctors are relatively wealthy. In addition to their jobs at state-run hospitals, they also run private clinics and medical stores. In Quetta hundreds of hospitals and private clinics bring in millions of rupees a day. Hospitals are usually packed with patients not only from the province, but from Afghanistan and Iran. My intention in writing this is not to justify these kidnappings but simply to explain why they occur.

Law enforcement officers claim to have arrested some gangs behind the kidnappings, but they have not been able to completely eradicate the lucrative kidnapping business. Complicating the issue is the fact that doctors themselves blame law enforcement agencies for backing the criminals. The APMA has filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting deployment of a special force to protect doctors. For those in Quetta, many talented people and professionals are leaving the city, fearing for their safety. It’s time the government paid more attention to the maintenance of public order in the Quetta valley.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2014.