NAROWAL: Two paramedics of the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Narowal have been arrested for attempting to rape the young mother of a baby patient in the hospital.

A case was registered against them on report of the mother of the victim, a resident Mohalla Muhammadpura.

The woman alleged in the first information report (FIR) that her daughter had gone to the hospital laboratory for tests of her baby admitted to the children ward of the DHQ Hospital on the night between Friday and Saturday.

She reached the laboratory with the samples at 12:30am where the suspects, identified in the case, introduced themselves as dispensers of the hospital. They took her to the administration block of the hospital on some pretext and tried to rape her in the washroom.

The security guards of the hospital took timely action, caught the suspects and handed them over to the police.

The Narowal City Police Station registered an FIR against the suspects.

Station House Officer Khalid Khan said the police had arrested both the suspects.

According to sources, the dispenser had raped the woman but as she belonged to a poor family, the matter was turned into an attempted rape case.

They said the DHQ hospital administration had harassed the victim girl and her family to suppress the matter.

DHQ Hospital MS Dr Muhammad Afzal Rajput was contacted several times on his mobile phone but no response was received.

District Health Authority CEO Dr Naveed Haider said he was unaware of an incident of sexual abuse or attempted rape at the hospital.

DC Muhammad Ashraf, also the chairman of District Health Authority, expressed ignorance of the incident. However, he sought a report from the health CEO and the hospital MS.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2023