PESHAWAR: The provincial health department committee constituted to probe the death of Alisha failed to pin responsibility for her death in its report released Thursday.

The five-member committee constituted by the provincial health department at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) to investigate allegations of negligence by doctors and paramedics as the cause of Alisha's death remained split over assigning responsibility.

The committee, headed by Dr Zafar Iqbal of Lady Reading Hospital and consisting of Mohasim Billa Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa additional secretary health and nursing director at LRH Shaheen Ghani, and LRH media manage Zulfiqar Ali recommended further inquiry including legal, surgical, and forensic specialists and hospital administration to arrive at the cause of death.

The inquiry report could not pinpoint and state with certainty whether Alisha's death was the result of mismanagement or negligence at the hospital.

However, the report accepts the fact the victim was continuously shifted from one place to another, without taking into account the severity of her injuries.

Shah wrote in his dissenting note that two doctors, Ihsan and Ibrahim, conducted the surgery on Alisha in the operating theater of Accident and Emergency ward.

The doctors did not follow procedure, and conducted the surgery without first conducting an abdominal surgery X-ray or an exploratory laparotomy, which might have led the doctors in taking the correct decisions in the case.

A laparotomy is a surgical procedure involving a large incision through the abdominal wall to gain access into the abdominal cavity.

The doctors also failed to consult any senior doctor, which amounts to negligence.

"Why was a patient with abdominal injuries referred to the orthopedic ward," questioned Shah in his dissenting note.

Shah also criticised the medical director of LRH, Dr Amir Ghafoor, and said, "It is quite strange Dr Ghafoor left the hospital and went abroad on leave, without a notification being issued and circulated in the hospital, despite the fact LRH is the largest public sector hospital in the province."

Another inquiry committee member also recommended disciplinary action against the senior doctors who oversaw the patient without conducting a laparotomy.

Alisha, a transgender activist working for Trans Action Alliance (TAA), was shot eight times, close to her one-room rented residence at Iqbal Plaza near Parda Bagh, Faqirbabad.

In her statement to police in hospital, Alisha had identified her killer as Fazal Gujjar, a resident of Bakhshoo Pull.

Alisha and her attendants had to go through a humiliating ordeal when the badly injured transvestite was taken to Lady Reading Hospital on Sunday night. The hospital staff and the attendants with the patients did not take them seriously and after failing to get accommodated in the male or the female ward, they were forced to get a private room in the hospital.

Later Alisha’s condition deteriorated and she was shifted to the ICU but she succumbed to her injuries and died.

Alisha's murder was the fifth reported case of violence against trans people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year. Other members of the TAA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Adnan, Sameer, Komal and Ayesha were also targeted this year.