KARACHI: Young doctors on Saturday staged a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club against the alleged enforced disappearance of their fellow doctor.

They said that around one dozen persons, some of them in police uniforms, took away Dr Ismail, who works at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), from his residence near Tariq Road. Dr Ismail originally hails from Balochistan.

The protesters warned that if the missing doctor was not released within 48 hours, they would be compelled to chalk out their future line of action after consultation with doctors across the country.

Dr Mehboob Ansari, president of Young Doctors Association-Sindh, and others narrated the details of the incident that took place on Nov 11. They said that since then, his whereabouts were not known.

The doctors urged the authorities to take notice of Dr Ismail’s disappearance.

They said that his cousin, Jilani Khan, had submitted an application before the Ferozabad police station but they did not lodge an FIR.

Mr Khan said the missing doctor had no affiliation with any group. He said he was a professional working at the orthopaedic department of the JPMC. His wife is also a doctor, working at a major private hospital in the metropolis, he added.

He said that the day his cousin was picked up another person, Haji Mohammed Husain, was also ‘taken away’ from his office in Saima Plaza on I.I. Chundrigar Road and his whereabouts were also not known since then.

He said Dr Ismail’s family saw him sitting in a police van outside their residence during the raid.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023