TAXILA: The Taxila police on Monday arrested six people including a doctor and a nurse involved in depriving people of their kidneys and selling them to patients at a high price.

Police sources said a police party led by SHO Sub Inspector Sarmad Ilyas along with Human Organ Transplant Agency (HOTA) staff raided a house located in a society where kidney of Shahid Ali, a native of Lahore, was being transplanted to Baseer Khan, a native of Peshawar, under a deal.

Police sources said nine other facilitators including a Peshawar based anesthetist, a female nurse, a medicine supplier and two of them brokers managed to escape from scene successfully.

Sources said that a case was registered against the accused under section 334 and 337-R of Pakistan Penal code (PPC) as sections 3, 4, 9 and 10 transplantation of human organs and tissues act 2010 and launched further investigation.

Responding to a question, Sub Inspector Sarmad Ilyas said both the donor and receiver were shifted to Benazir Bhutto hospital Rawalpindi for medical treatment.

Hassan Akhtar assistant director vigilance Human Organ Dr Fawad, who was working as an assistant professor at Lahore General Hospital, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for red-handed transplanting the kidneys of two Pakistani nationals to Omani citizens for Rs6 million.

He said the suspect used to get huge amounts for kidney transplants adding that he also used a ‘benami account’ for money deals.

Later acclaimed Pakistani comedian Umar Sharif’s daughter, Hina Umar had passed away due to complications caused by allegedly ‘illegal kidney transplant’ in February 2020 carried out by Dr Fawad Mumtaz fraudulently carried out illegal kidney transplant of Hira Umar at an undisclosed location in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for Rs3.4 million.

A joint team of the FIA and the HOTA carried out an investigation into the case. He said that a similar case was also registered against him at Factory area police station Faisalabad.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2023