RAWALPINDI: A private hospital said to have been used for illegal organ trade and sealed by a bailiff on Oct 20 was unsealed on Friday after the police said they needed the hospital to be opened in order to collect evidence for forensic analysis.

“The police filed an application with the concerned court, seeking orders for unsealing the private hospital,” the police investigating officer told Dawn.

He said that now that hospital has been opened, the police do not have power to seal it again and stop it from becoming functional.

Public prosecutor Irshad Ahmed Khan said he was not consulted by the police before seeking court orders for unsealing the private hospital.

The hospital is located in a multi-story building in Morgah and was sealed on the orders of Magistrate Chaudhry Waqar Mansoor Baryar in connection with a case registered with the Rawat police on Oct 15.

The police had requested the concerned court for orders to seal the hospital after an organ trafficking ring operating in Rawalpindi was busted on Sunday Oct 15 and 20 men and four women were found to have been detained in a locked apartment of a commercial building in Bahria Town Phase VII.

The police had also arrested four suspects during the raid in which the detainees were recovered. The majority of detainees were brick kiln workers and labourers.

Syed Yasir Hussein Shah Tirmazi offered free legal aid to the detainees, all of whom had been brought to Rawalpindi from across Punjab with offers of jobs and money.

Five other suspects, including three doctors who worked at the private hospital in question, have also been nominated in the case and have not yet been arrested.

When asked, City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi said police investigations and that five international airports in the country have been intimated so the accused persons cannot escape.

Three separate FIRs have been registered with the Morgah police in connection with the illegal trade in the first week of August, three of which the police are yet to investigate.

Published in Dawn November 12th, 2016