Broken trust: Three lady health workers held in illegal adoption case

Suspects allegedly part of a ring stealing babies and putting them up for paid adoptions.


Our Correspondent February 05, 2015
Police arrests three women for selling babies. PHOTO: NAEEM GHOURI/EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD:


The case of an alleged illegal adoption ring took a new turn on Thursday as the police arrested three women, said to be lady health workers, from Peshawar and Mardan for their alleged involvement in the case.


A senior police official told The Express Tribune that all three women were lady health workers and were arrested on a tip-off from the alleged ringleaders, who were arrested earlier. The official said the health workers had easy access to most localities, which “may have allowed them to help the suspects survey the areas”.

He added that reuniting the children, at least some of whom are believed to have been stolen, with the parents would be a real success for the police. He said new information has surfaced and raids would be conducted in different cities to arrest the remaining members of the ring.

The official added that the women would be brought to the capital after obtaining transitory remand from local courts.

Earlier, the police said that a resident of Lahore, Asif Qureshi, came to know that a Facebook page “BabyAdoptDropOrg” was involved in the business.

Through his sources, Qureshi contacted Shahzad Ali Zeb and he agreed to sell an eight-day-old babyfor Rs300,000. Qureshi became suspicious due to the demand for cash and later found that Zeb, his mother and wife were allegedly stealing newborn babies from hospitals and selling them.

The suspects used an NGO called “Madad Welfare Organisation” as a cover for their illegal activities, a police official said. It has an office in Sector G-10, but the authenticity and legal status of the organisation has yet to be confirmed.

Qureshi had lodged a case against the suspects at Ramna Police Station, saying that the suspects, Zeb and his mother Tahira Gul, who is president of the NGO, stole newborns from hospitals and sold them for hundreds of thousands of rupees.

During initial interrogation, the police said that the suspects confessed to stealing babies from various hospitals in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar and selling them. The suspects said they had formed the NGO and newborn babies were supplied by women who would steal them from hospitals, said the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2015.

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