ABBOTTABAD, Dec 18: Nine people were arrested on Saturday for their alleged involvement in illegal sale of blood to different laboratories in Abbottabad. Assistant Superintendent of Police Athar Hayat, told newsmen that the sale of infectious blood was being carried out from a house in Mir Pur, opposite the Ayub Medical Complex.

Police raided the house and arrested nine people with five bags of blood, syringes and a huge quantity of medicines.

Police also recovered copies of National Identity Cards (NIC) from the house.

The blood sellers were either addicts or suffering from jaundice or others diseases, police said.

The blood sellers disclosed that they used to give blood to an agent, Abdul Qayum, for Rs300 who later sold it to different labs or directly to patients in hospitals for Rs1,000 to Rs1,400. All the nine were booked under section 3/7 of 1984.

The arrested people were Muhammad Siddique (Islamabad), Irshad Hussain (D G Khan), M. Akbar (Muzaffarabad), Jehanda (Abbottabad), Qutabdin (Shallot), Rab Nawaz (Peshawar), Pervez Akhter (Gujar Khan), Imtiaz Hussain (Lahore), Abdul Qayum (Abbottabad).