TOBA TEK SINGH: One of the doctors arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore on Thursday in an illegal kidney transplant case told the media here on Friday that he started transplanting human organs at Pirmahal’s rented house a month ago.

He was responding to questions asked during a press conference by FIA Deputy Director Chaudhry Sarfraz.

Dr Shahid Rashid further said he had earlier transplanted kidneys of several patients at a private hospital in Sahiwal along with another doctor of Chichawatni.

Sarfraz and FIA Assistant Director Ijaz Ahmad told the media that in a similar illegal transplant case where several people had been arrested, a rickshaw driver had sold his kidney for just Rs80,000 to prepare for his daughter’s wedding, while the patient whom he had donated the kidney to was charged Rs6 million by the gang. To find out if a similar transaction was carried out in this case, the team will question the woman who sold her kidney to the suspects when she regained consciousness.

Sarfraz had led the team that arrested Dr Rashid, Dr Shahid Mahmood and five paramedics, including Muhammad Ashfaq, Shahzad Ahmad, Muhammad Ramzan, Ghulam Rasool and Abdullah from a house located in Masjid Block of Pirmahal while they were operating on a donor and transplanting her kidney to a Saudi Arabian patient.

Scores of people from Pirmahal gathered there and raised slogans in favour of the FIA team that had conducted the raid and arrested kidney transplant gang members.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2017