RAHIM YAR KHAN/SUKKUR: Nasrullah Gadani, reporter of a Sindhi newspaper, was shifted to Karachi via air ambulance in a very critical condition on Wednesday afternoon. Doctors at the Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) said the family had taken the step against their advice.

Gadani had suffered serious gunshot wounds in an attack by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants near Korai Goth, 12 kilometres from Mirpur Mathelo, on Tuesday, when he was going to the town on his two-wheeler. Police had brought Gadani to Mirpur Mathelo hospital where doctors provided him emergency medical aid and immediately sent him to Rahim Yar Khan for surgery.

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On Wednesday, philanthropist Saad Edhi extended help to the journalist’s family to shift Gadani to Karachi via Edhi air ambulance. SZMCH’s deputy medical superintendent Rana Ilyas Ahmed said that no official from the governments of Punjab or Sindh contacted the hospital administration with regard to the patient.

Sources said the doctors had tried to dissuade the journalist’s family from shifting him to Karachi in such a precarious condition but they [family] ignored their advice. Gadani was taken to Aga Khan Hospital immediately after landing in Karachi because his condition had started deteriorating in Rahim Yar Khan, said the sources.

Protest at SSP office

A large number of journalists and Gadani’s family members and supporters, including members of nationalist parties and social and rights activists, staged a sit-in in front of SSP’s office in Mirpur Mathelo to protest against the attack on the journalist.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2024