For services, not ransom: Doctors’ kidnapping on the rise in K-P

Doctors are being kidnapped since criminals find it difficult to get their accomplices treated in the tribal areas.

ISLAMABAD:

Criminals have started kidnapping doctors in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in order to get their accomplices treated, Express News has learnt.

According to a source in the ministry of interior, the law enforcement agencies operating in K-P have turned in reports suggesting doctors have grown increasingly vulnerable.

“Criminals are kidnapping doctors from areas of K-P bordering the tribal areas,” he said. “Surprisingly, they are being kidnapped since criminals find it difficult to get their accomplices treated in the tribal areas, where they have their hideouts.”

The source said that it has become a challenge for the law-enforcement agencies to protect practicing doctors in K-P. “The police are trying to devise some strategy to counter doctors’ kidnappings in the province,” he added.

According to him, K-P authorities have raised the issue at the higher level and sought cooperation of the secret agencies to check the dangerous trend.

The source said most kidnapping cases are solved by tracing kidnappers’ telephone calls but the situation is quite different in doctors’ cases. “The kidnappers never even bother to call the doctors’ dear ones.”

The recovery of kidnapped doctors is also hindered by the bad security situation in the tribal areas, according to the source.

He said doctors in K-P have been advised by the police to arrange security guards at their work places and stay in contact with law-enforcers to avoid any untoward incident.

The issue has also been discussed in classified briefings of parliamentary committees and police authorities are working on some effective plan for doctors’ security.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2014. 


Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2014.