Baluchistan-TARGETING DOCTORS FOR RANSOM MONEY

Kidnapping of moneyed people, businessmen or professionals is nothing but the complete breakdown of law and order. Simply the Government had failed to protect life, honour and dignity of the citizens. It is the basic obligation of the Government and the State to protect its citizens against the enemies in case of foreign aggression and also from the criminals. The Government is unable to fulfill this constitutional obligation to this date and hundreds of people are being kidnapped for ransom money. Most of them well to do people, judges of the subordinate courts, lawyers, doctors, professionals and businessmen. The most vulnerable section of our society—the Hindu shopkeepers and small scale businessmen in the remote corners of the Province are the most favourite target of the criminals. For this, a powerful section of our society is also encouraging violence against this vulnerable section of our traditional society. This forced some to migrate to India, others to Sindh and major cities and human settlements of the country. In a planned manner, they are being harassed. The minority community had no complaints against the dominating Baloch society in the history spread over to centuries and now it had become a recent tradition and during the past few years the number of cases increased manifold. However, the most favourable targets are doctors and members of the minority community, mainly small and medium size businessmen of rural Balochistan and the criminals and their patrons among the influential people are encouraging their kidnapping. In a week’s time, two prominent doctors were waylaid, kidnapped and taken to unknown destinations presumably for ransom. Surgeon Bangulzai returned with no credible information that he had paid the ransom money to this captors or not. It is not known to us. Rather it will never come on the record if he had paid the ransom money for obvious reasons. Now Dr Ghulam Rasool Kakar was kidnapped. He was whisked away leaving behind his car presumably to destroy the footprints of the kidnappers in which direction they had gone. In case of Dr Bangulzai, doctors in Quetta and elsewhere observe complete strike and registered their strong protest against kidnapping by closing down OPDs and suspending treatment at wards, canceling routine operations in all the major hospitals of Quetta, Mastung, Naushki and Kalat. Now a similar situation had developed and the doctors announced complete boycott of the OPD suspending routine operations and emergency cases to register their protest. Ironically, the Government and the administration are unmoved and it seems that the rulers are unconcerned over the kidnapping for ransom cases targeting doctors. It is facts that over half a million people are directly affected if the doctors boycott the OPD in all the major hospitals. In other words, the whole of Balochistan is shaken up as half a million denied health care facility merely because the Government failed to trace and bust the gangs of criminals operating on some black spots, including Quetta. Kidnapping ICRC doctor was most surprising. The British national doctor was kidnapped probably making the ICRC the real target and not the doctor for ransom money, some observers thought. However, many doctors were killed; some other members of the NGOs had been slain merely because their relatives could not pay ransom money. The Government of Pakistan can arrange hefty some of money not once but twice for Somali pirate seeking release of some Pakistani captives on the insistence of MQM, an ally of the PPP Government. Pakistanis are first holding talks with the Somali pirates and paying ransom money to the criminals through MQM men and no Government in the world is holding talks with the Somali pirates. If they Government can arrange money for paying ransom to the Somali pirates, then it should do the same for the Pakistani criminals and pay them ransom money in return of release of all captives, if the Government is reluctant to take firm and decisive action against the kidnappers. At least, there will be no flight of capital from Pakistan by paying ransom money to Pakistani criminals supported by their influential and powerful patrons who desire to become billionaires over night.