HYDERABAD, April 15: The Kotri police have arrested two men, Rehmat Masih and Yaqoob Masih, on the charges of selling human organs.
Though their arrests have not been disclosed officially, a police official confirmed their arrest on condition of anonymity.
The two men were arrested from the Jhirk area of Thatta district. However, the official insisted that they had been arrested from the jurisdiction of the Kotri police.
Their involvement in trading in human organs such as kidneys and pancreas came to the fore after a labourer, Mushtaque Masih, and a boy, Nisar, reported the matter to the Special Task Force for Sindh of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
An STF official, Aftab Ahmed, told this correspondent that Mushtaque Masih and Nisar apprised him about the matter and subsequently he informed the Kotri police about it.
The HRCP official talked to the DPO, Dadu, and then to the additional DPO, Dadu, Jamshed Qazi, in Kotri.
Mr Aftab said that it was on April 9 when Rehmat Masih prevailed upon Mushtaque, an addict, that he knew a doctor, who would treat him for his addiction. Rehmat told Mushtaque that he would also pay him around Rs100,000 in exchange for his pancreas, the HRCP official quoted Mushtaque Masih as saying. Mushtaque was taken to a house, located in Bihar Colony, where he found around half a dozen people. He stayed there for the night.
Mr Aftab said that during his stay the doctor called on him but for unknown reasons changed his mind of operating upon him and disclosed the actual purpose of why he was brought there.
The HRCP official added that the doctor prescribed an injection and Mushtaque left the house for purchasing it. But the people, who were present in the house, also accompanied him and he could not get away.
The next morning — April 10 — the doctor again arrived at the house and once again asked Mushtaque to bring the injection. It was only then that he left the house and was able to escape.
Quoting Mushtaque, Mr Aftab claimed that the doctor made a mark around the area of the kidney, which was to be taken out.
The HRCP official said that in a similar case, Rehmat Masih, approached Nisar, who was residing in the HRCP’s camp of liberated Haris, situated in Sikandarabad, Kotri, to accompany him and he would be paid Rs100,000 in lieu of an organ of his body.
Initially, Nisar agreed to accompany him but after seeing a car on the main road, he fled on the pretext of passing urine.
Mr Aftab said that Nisar told about the incident to his paternal aunt, who also knew the case of Mushtaque Masih.
Both Nisar and Mushtaque then approached the HRCP and Aftab Ahmed gave a letter addressed to the additional DPO, Dadu, Jamshed Qazi.
The matter was finally handed over to the Kotri SHO.
Police have not registered a case so far as they have not discovered any case in which the organs were removed by the doctor. The Kotri police raided the house in Bihar Colony but found it to be locked.
A police official said that on Tuesday the police also picked up one Shaukat Khawar, who is in his early 90s. He was being interrogated along with Rehmat and Yaqoob.
The doctor and his accomplices have absconded.