Safoora bus attack: Alleged terrorism facilitator unable to walk, court told

Medical report states that the infection will take three months to heal

KARACHI: The condition of a suspect held in connection with the Safoora bus attack case is getting serious. Hussain Omar Siddiqi is suffering from an infection that has almost crippled him. Unable to walk, he complains of having lost sensation in his right leg.

Hussain and his brother, Sultan Qamar Siddiqi, vice-chairperson of the Fishermen Cooperative Society, have been incarcerated for their alleged involvement in the Safoora bus attack. It is maintained by the prosecution that they provided logistical and financial assistance to the assailants who carried out the attack on a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community. Forty-five people, including women, were killed in the incident.

According to a report submitted by the central jail authorities before the anti-terrorism court hearing the case, Hussain has been shifted to the hospital within the prison. It is anticipated that the illness will take around three months to be cured, the report added.

The report in question was submitted by the superintendent and chief medical officer of the central prison. Earlier, at a previous hearing, the court had summoned them over the submission of an incomplete medical report pertaining to the health of the suspect.

In the previous report, it was stated that the suspect complained of having lost sensation in his leg. The report carried the recommendations of a neurologist and an orthopedic surgeon, who suggested fresh tests be conducted. But neither doctor stated their findings about Hussain's disease.

Javed Ahmed Keerio, the judge in charge of ATC-VI, had expressed his dissatisfaction, observing that the report was incomplete and ambiguous. Thus, the higher authorities were summoned to explain the suspect's medical condition.

On Wednesday, the superintendent and chief medical officer explained that some of the veins of the suspect's right leg were damaged. The doctors are trying to revive them and cure the infection, they asserted, adding that the prison hospital was fully equipped to handle the case. The judge, after recording the statements of the jail officials, made the report part of the case. The comments from the jail authorities were called after the suspect's attorney moved an application pleading that his client be shifted to a private hospital for treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2015.