A doctor at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) was injured in an attack by a policeman on late Wednesday night who shot the healthcare worker for allegedly being denied prescribed sleeping pills.
According to local media reports, initial investigation reports suggested that the police constable, who was posted at CTD Civil Lines, shot and injured Dr Fahad Hussain in NICVD’s emergency ward after another doctor advised him against the use of sleeping pills without prescription.
“The constable had been suffering from chest pains for the last 15-20 days. He got tested at Ziauddin Hospital and was diagnosed with typhoid after which he visited NICVD on Tuesday night. However, the security guard prevented him from entering as he was not wearing a mask,” CTD senior official Raja Umer Khattab said.
He told that after an argument with the guard, the policeman borrowed someone’s mask and entered the emergency ward where he reportedly asked the doctor for sleeping pills, explaining that he hadn’t slept for three days but went home after being denied the drugs.
On Wednesday night, he returned and inquired about the same doctor. However, on finding that the doctor he was looking for was not available, he opened fire on Dr Fahad, who had nothing to do with the case, and managed to escape.
Khattab said that after the incident, the suspect visited CTD Civil Lines where he behaved strangely and told his colleagues that he had shot the doctor.
Khattab said he asked police personnel to detain him, adding that the CTD police later handed him over to Saddar police for the investigation. Quoting the suspect’s family and colleagues, the CTD official said he believed that lately, the detained policeman had become “emotionally disturbed”.
Dr Fahad suffered two bullet wounds in his legs and his condition was said to be out of danger. The police have registered a first information report (FIR) against the police constable under section 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the wounded doctor.
The complainant in his statement to the police said that he was performing his duty in the emergency ward when a man came and asked him as to whether the doctor from the previous night was there.
Fahad said that he told him he didn’t know about the doctor’s whereabouts upon which the suspect started alleging that “you (doctors) are dishonest and I will not spare you” and shot at both his legs before fleeing.
