SAHIWAL: Senior Civil Judge Masood Ahmed Faridi on Wednesday extended for two days the physical remand of five health officials, who are suspects in the case pertaining to the death of 20 babies in the Pakpattan district headquarters (DHQ) hospital.

The suspects — Health CEO Dr Sohail Asghar, Medical Superintendent Dr Adnan Ghaffar, Medical Officer Dr Ahsan, and lab technicians Tufail and Murtaza — have now been remanded for total six days since their arrest as the city police have failed to recover the “missing” official record of the 20 babies who died between June 16 and 22 at the paediatric ward of the DHQ hospital.

The arrest of these health officials was ordered by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz during her visit to the hospital in the light of the findings of two inquiry reports compiled by the provincial health department and Sahiwal Commissioner Asif Tufail, respectively.

Pakpattan District Police Officer (DPO) Javed Iqbal Chadhar told Dawn that police are trying to recover crucial missing record, including the death register, patients’ files, details of doctors and paramedics involved in the babies treatment and of oxygen supply to the ward.

A case (FIR No 738/25) was registered against these officials and unidentified doctors and paramedics under section 322 and 201 of the PPC, following a complaint by Ali Hyder, father of one of the deceased babies, with the City Police Station, Pakpattan.

City SHO Muhammad Hasim says police have also issued an advertisement in the print media and local social media platforms regarding the four of the deceased babies, mentioned as “misplaced” in the FIR by the complainant.

Interestingly, while the FIR provides names and addresses of 16 deceased babies, it states that four of them had been “misplaced by doctors and paramedic staff of the hospital’s paediatric ward”.

In another related development, Primary Health Department Secretary Nadia Saqib also removed Ziaul Mustafa, a pharmacist at the DHQ hospital, on administrative grounds.

ARRESTED: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have arrested a suspected militant belonging to a banned outfit in an intelligence-based operation at 100-A/6-R village of Sahiwal tehsil, late on Tuesday night.

As per CTD officials, the arrested suspect, identified as Tahir, son of Hazoor Bakhsh, a resident of Kotla Baqir Shah, Ahmedpur East tehsil, Bahawalpur district, is affiliated with the proscribed group Fitna Tul Khawarij, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

During the operation, CTD teams recovered detonators, prima cards, wires, dry batteries, electric circuits and a live improvised explosive device (IED). The IED reportedly contained fuses, nails, and defusing mechanisms.

The officials say that the suspect intended to carry out some terrorist activity.

Following the recovery of IED from the suspect, Civil Defense expert Muhammad Abid defused the device.

CTD also seized Rs4,500 cash from the suspect.

The suspect has been booked under Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Act 1908 and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 on the compliant of Azhar Hayat, an official of the CTD police station, Sahiwal.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2025