KARACHI: While investigators are looking into the kidnapping and release of a medico-legal officer by unidentified personnel in plain clothes, the medical fraternity on Monday demanded a judicial probe and protection for the MLO and his family.

Dr Shahzad Butt, the MLO at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, along with his brother was kidnapped by armed men from his Lea Market residence in the early hours of Sunday. Before releasing him, the armed men tortured and forced him to delete data pertaining to autopsies on bodies of some suspects killed in alleged police encounters from his laptop and cellphone.

Take a look: Brazen impunity

The Sindh chief minister had ordered an inquiry and DIG-West Tahir Naveed was tasked to conduct a probe.

Sources said that the DIG recorded the statement of MLO Dr Shahzad, Police Surgeon Jalil Qadir and others at the office of the police surgeon adjacent to the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK).

“Nothing concrete came out from these statements, which could help the investigators to identify the perpetrators and their possible motive for the kidnapping and torture of the MLO,” the police surgeon told Dawn.

It was, therefore, decided that the police would now examine the CCTV footage of the surveillance cameras installed on the route from the doctor’s residence to the railway tracks behind the Central Police Office (CPO), the place where his abductors left him abandoned.

Another police official, Raja Umer Khattab of the Counter Terrorism Department, who also interviewed the MLO on Monday, said that the DIG-West also recorded the statements of a Crimes Branch police team, whose members were blamed for the kidnapping incident.

About the deletion of important files from the doctor’s laptop and mobile phone, he said that this action would make no difference since the post-mortem reports were kept in an official register and a copy of every autopsy report was sent to the office of the police surgeon. “The MLO may keep autopsy report in his laptop or iPod for reference but such medical reports could not be vanished by merely deleting the data from such devices,” he added.

He said the MLO did not inform him about any particular autopsy report for which he was kidnapped and tortured.

He said the doctor told him that six or seven persons in plain clothes kidnapped him in a “white colour police mobile” and released him after torturing and deleting data from his laptop at the railway tracks behind the CPO.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association expressed their ‘deep concern’ on the issue of Dr Shahzad and demanded a fair and impartial judicial inquiry.

“We believe that the job of an MLO is extremely sensitive and no one should be allowed to interfere in it,” said a PMA statement.

The doctors’ body also demanded protection for the MLO and his family.

Dr Nisar Shah, a senior CHK MLO, said that the MLOs wore black armbands on Monday in protest over the incident.

He said that it was their demand that a judicial probe be initiated and all policemen involved in the incident be taken to task. Dr Shah said that they would be compelled to resume strike if their demands were not met within two days.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2015

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