KARACHI, Jan 9: Shaista Almani, who had married of her own free will and was later divorced under tribal pressure, left the city hospital where she had been admitted, on Friday night with the police, under unusual circumstances and later landed into another hospital.

Shaista, after her marriage, was chased and tracked down by her tribe and was admitted for psychiatric treatment to the Hilal-i-Ahmer hospital.

Police said that on Friday evening she gave a written statement before an area Nazim that she wanted to go with a representative of an Urdu daily. The police took her, along with her sister, to the office of the daily, where there were no arrangements for her stay.

Later, she was taken to the Mid-East Hospital, where also arrangements could not be made for her stay. Finally, she was taken to another hospital, the police said.

However, the police remained tight-lipped regarding the reasons behind her leaving the hospital. The hospital management told Dawn that they had not forced her out of the hospital and they were waiting for an alternative arrangement for her stay.

Chairperson of the Aurat Foundation, Anis Haroon, expressing her surprise over the development, told Dawn that arrangements had been made for Shaista's stay at Panah, an NGO-run shelter for women.

Shaista was being looked after by her sister in the hospital, as her brother and father were staying at some other place in the city. Dr Haroon Ahmed, who was treating Shaista, had earlier written to the police that she was nearing completion of her treatment and alternative arrangements should be made for her stay. According to Dr Haroon, police had told him that alternative arrangements had already been made for her stay.