DADU: Additional District Health Officer (ADHO) of Dadu Dr Zahid Hussain Khahro, who had disappeared after leaving his home in the District Headquarters Hospital Staff Colony eight days ago (on Dec 28, 2023) and eventually resurfaced three days later, has claimed that he was actually kidnapped by his successor Dr Gulzar Panhwar in collusion with the hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Amjad Mastoi.

He narrated his “ordeal” at a news conference in the Dadu Press Club on Friday to reject the official claim that a police and CIA team “recovered” him from a shrine in Larkana on December 31, 2023 after a hectic search. He also accused the police of not registering his kidnap FIR due to Dadu SSP’s friendship with Dr Mastoi.

He told journalists that on Dec 28, he had left his residence by a rickshaw to get his laptop repaired. He claimed that when he neared the hospital, Dr Gulzar Panhwar stopped him and said that he wanted to discuss his [Dr Khahro’s] dispute with Dr Mastoi.

“Dr Panhwar sat with me in a car and during the travel to some unknown place, I felt something having been injected in my back; I fell semi-unconscious,” he claimed, and resumed his narration by saying: “Later, I reached Lahore and then proceeded to the Mashori Sharif shrine in Larkana”.

He did not mention anything about his discussion with Dr Panhwar or Dr Mastoi, but just gave the impression that the latter was accompanying them.

Colleagues term abduction a ‘drama to escape action over corruption’

Dr Khahro alleged that the Dadu SSP was threatening him to not to register FIR against Dr Mastoi.

“Why has Dr Gulzar been interfering in the affairs of the DHQ hospital when he is not even an employee of the hospital? Why he used to wear a doctor’s dress and keep promoting Dr Mastoi?” he asked.

Dr Amjad Mastoi also spoke at a separate press conference in the press club to reject all allegations about his involvement in Dr Khahro’s “so-called” kidnapping.

He said Dr Zahid Khahro had gone into hiding on his own and was now staging a drama to implicate others in the “fake” kidnap case.

“Dr Khahro had committed corruption to the tune of around a billion rupees while acting as the focal person of health department and certain international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) during the 2022 floods,” alleged Dr Mastoi. Dr Khahro had also committed corruption while holding the charge of the DHQ hospital’s medical superintendent, he claimed, and alleged that he had resorted to staging the drama to save himself from prosecution as well.

A former MS of Dadu DHQ hospital Dr Abdul Karim Mirani, Dr Abdul Hameed Mirani, senior medical officers Dr Zubair Channa, Dr Ateeq Rehman, Dr Mohammad Bakhsh Baloch and Dr Allah Bakhsh Korejo accompanied Dr Amjad Mastoi at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2024