LARKANA: The suspended assistant director of the Larkana Darul Aman, Mukhtiar Khatoon Abbasi, was formally arrested on Friday for her alleged negligence leading to the escape of three inmates on July 1.

Ms Abbasi, who headed the the Darul Aman when the incident took place, was lodged in the women police station for interrogation.

The three women, Nusrat Buledi, 24, (Garhi Khairo), Nooran Chandio, 22, (Warah) and Muskan Shaikh, 32, (Khairpur) managed to escape from the Darul Aman by cutting the iron grill of the window of an upper storey.

Larkana Deputy Comm­issioner-II Saifullah Abro, who headed the committee that investigated the whole episode, fixed responsibility of the incident on the policemen on duty.

The name of Ms Abbasi would be incorporated in the FIR (88/2014) lodged by a social welfare officer, Faheem Akhtar, under sections 120, 223 and 224 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Waleed police station, police sources said.

Confirming the arrest of Ms Abbasi, acting Larkana SSP Tauqeer Naeem told Dawn that she had ignored an alert that some of the inmates were under threat. “She did not take any measures to ward off the threat”, he said, adding: “we will seek remand of Ms Abbasi as well as four police constables, Mohammed Mithal, Mohammed Azam, Raja Khan and Abdul Wahab, arrested for further interrogation.”A watchman, Allah Bukhsh Brohi, is also in police custody and being interrogated. The police are still clueless about the three escaped women.

PMA slams attack on doctor

The Larkana chapter of the Pakistan Medical Asso­ci­ation (PMA), the Chandka Teachers Association (CTA) and Chandka Medical College Hospital Parame­dics Association held a joint meeting of their general bodies on Friday to condemn an armed attack on Dr Khaliqur Rehman Soo­mro, serving at the college.

The meeting demanded arrest of the culprits and announced a boycott OPDs at the CMC Hospital and its allied hospitals from Saturday.

Dr Soomro was seriously wounded when two armed men, said to be robbers, shot him while he was sitting in his clinic located within the remit of the Rehmatpur police station earlier in the day. He was later shifted to Karachi for treatment.

Larkana ASP Mr Tauqeer identified the two attackers as Bakht Mirani and Abdul Waheed Detho, claiming that the latter was injured in the robbery bid and arrested.

He said that the doctor was wounded when Mirani fired a shot.

Larkana PMA president Dr Shahbaig Chandio and general secretary Dr Ikram Tunio, CTA chief Prof Badar Junejo, CMC vice principal Prof Dr Akbar Soomro and CMCH Paramedics Associa­tion Shahi Khan Jagirani expressed their concern over an increase in armed attacks on medical professionals and demanded measure for their safety and security.

They said doctors had been receiving ‘chits’ seeking protection money (bhatta) and containing life threats from extortionists.

Dr Shahbaig Chandio said the administration and police failed to ensure doctor’s safety and security and advised colleagues to hire private guards.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2014