RAWALPINDI: The private hospital in Rawalpindi thought to have been used for illegal organ trade was sealed on Thursday by the local police and a bailiff appointed by the area magistrate.

The hospital is housed in a multi-storey building in Morgah and was sealed at about 4pm. The police had requested the concerned court of orders to seal the hospital after an organ trafficking ring operating in Rawalpindi was busted on Saturday, during which 24 people they were illegally detaining were also recovered from a private building in Bahria Town Phase VII. During the same raid, the police also arrested four persons suspected to have been part of the organ trafficking gang.

The detainees were produced before the court of area magistrate Naveed Iqbal Tarar on Wednesday to record their statements and Advocate Syed Yasir Hussein Shah Tirmizi represented them pro bono.

Mr Tirmizi said that of the 24 detainees, the statements of 10 could be recorded till Wednesday night and that the statements of the rest were recorded Thursday. They will be allowed to go home sometime on Friday, he said.

The police are also conducting raids in order to secure the arrests of the four doctors nominated in the FIR with the Rawat Police, as they have disappeared since an organ trafficking case was registered against them.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2016