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Pakistan Punjab

Punjab once again sees the ugliness of organ trafficking

Punjab once again sees the ugliness of organ trafficking

The kidnapping of a child informs the police that the practice is now common in the province.

LAHORE: It took the kidnapping of a young boy before Punjab’s law enforcement officials realised that a human organ trafficking organisation was operating in the region and attempting to entice individuals with promises of large sums of money.

Abdullah’s worried father went to the Manawan police station and filed a report about his missing son. Abdullah was discovered, however he is now kidney-less. The 14-year-old victim reported to the police that he had been approached by a gang who promised to pay him well for his kidney.

The boy was then transported from Lahore to Rawalpindi, where when the process was completed, he was handed a little sum of money. The CCPO Lahore has currently assembled a team to look into the situation more thoroughly, and four arrests have already been made.

Amjad, a resident of Alia Town, Yousuf and Yousuf, inhabitants of Lahore’s Dial neighbourhood, and Faisal, a resident of Sharifpura, are among those detained.

Police sources with knowledge of the situation claim that the arrested individuals have so far admitted to handing over victims to an associate named Ameen, who would then transport them to Rawalpindi for the organ removal surgery.

The reports went on to say that the arrested people have admitted that they would entice patients with promises of receiving significant sums, but when the kidney was removed, they would only receive a meagre payment.

The Manawan police station’s officers claim that they have not been successful in obtaining any other information that could have resulted in additional arrests.

Consequently,, as per police sources, recently, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (PHOTA) have joined the investigation process as well.

However, despite recent raids by both authorities to catch the ringleaders of the trafficking group, so far there has been little luck.

In this regard, Central General Secretary of Pakistan Young Doctors Association, Dr Salman Kazmi, said that the police had failed to protect the citizens of Punjab from traffickers.

“Everyone knows that such agents roam around government and private hospitals.

They take advantage of the underprivileged by tempting them with lucrative payments in exchange for kidneys. The hospitals and doctors are complicit in all of this. It’s sad that the authorities are only now becoming aware of this incident, said Dr. Kazmi.

Dr. Kazmi’s opinion is credible because police sources told The Express Tribune that little has been accomplished in Abdullah’s case despite the immense powers that organisations like PHOTA possess.