The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested nine individuals involved in the illegal kidney transplant and organ trafficking in Islamabad.
As per the authorities of the FIA, nine men were arrested in the operation, out of which one was a senior urologist and a private hospital worker.
The officials of the FIA said that these individuals were arrested from a private hospital while conducting a raid, where their sources told them that illegal kidney operations were allegedly held.
The arrested doctor and the hospital employee were said to be the main characters in the whole operation.
The other individuals, including the alleged donors, receivers and the hospital staff, were also taken into custody and were sent to the office of the FIA anti organ trafficking circle in Islamabad for further questioning.
According to the officials of the FIA, the mega operation was linked to a wider organ trafficking network, which targeted poor individuals from Southern Punjab, including the cities of Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan.
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The spokesperson of the FIA also said that the suspects allegedly persuaded poor and vulnerable people looking for money to sell their kidneys in exchange for a small amount of money, while they sell those kidneys at a higher price.
The investigation has been initiated, and expanded to all those regions where these networks are linked and active right now by conducting further raids to arrest the linked suspects, said the spokesperson of the FIA.
The operation was carried out on the instructions of the Federal Minister for Interior of Pakistan, Mohsin Naqvi, the Director General (DG) of the FIA, Usman Anwar, and the FIA Islamabad zone director, Syed Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari.
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