RAWALPINDI: Two doctors of a private hospital, thought to be involved in organ trade, were arrested after their bail petitions were dismissed by the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench on Friday.

Two other doctors involved in the same case are yet to be arrested.

“Dr Hamid Mukhtar and his son Dr Tauseef Mukhtar were taken into police custody after Justice Qazi Mohmmad Ameen of the Lahore High Court dismissed their bail petitions. The police will be asking for their physical remand from the court on Saturday, said Station House Officer (SHO) Rawat Javed Iqbal Kiani.

The SHO said the police were conducting raids to secure arrests of Dr Khalid Mehmood and Dr Zahid Iqbal Shah as they have been declared proclaimed offenders.

The victims whose kidneys were taken out, allegedly by these doctors who are thought to be working with other members of an organ trafficking ring, and those who were detained were represented in court by advocates Syed Yasir Shah Tirmizi, Asad Abbasi and Farhat Chaudhry.

Two other doctors still at large

The organ trafficking ring was busted in Rawalpindi in Oct 2016 and the police had recovered 20 men and four women who were being illegally detained.

The victims were lured to Rawalpindi from across Punjab with promises of better jobs, money and a better life. They were then kept in a multi-storey building in Bahria Town Phase VII for several weeks. The victims included brick kiln workers and labourers who belonged to Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Okara, Sahiwal, Kasur, Hafizabad, Khanawal, Gujranwala and Bahawalnagar.

During the raid on the building, the police arrested five of the gang members, including a woman, though three of the doctors nominated in the FIR could not be arrested with the police claiming the delay was due to legal obstacles.

The police had requested concerned authorities to put the names of Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Shah and his two sons, Dr Tauseef Mukhtar Shah and Dr Zahid Iqbal Shah, on the Exit Control List in the kidney case.

The police said the two doctors arrested on Friday will be produced in the court of a civil judge on Saturday to obtain a physical remand.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2017