Rawalpindi - Rawat police here on Thursday took into custody a government serving doctor for his alleged involvement in an illegal kidney transplant case after the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench dismissed his plea for pre-arrest bail.

The police took into custody Dr. Manzoor Mali, who is serving as an anesthetist in Tehsil Headquarter Hospital (THQ) Hazroo, Attock, from the LHC premises after Justice Waheed Khan dismissed his plea for pre-arrest bail in the case registered on August 7, 2025 with Rawat police station.

Talking to The Nation, Mian Muhammad Tariq Batah, Assistant Director Legal PHOTA (Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority) Rawalpindi, said that an additional district and sessions judge in Rawalpindi dismissed Dr Manzoor's pre-arrest bail petition on August 26. He said that the arrested doctor was nominated in the FIR by the complainant and victim whose kidney was being removed when the police raided a house in Bahria Town. The legal officer of the PHOTA said that there were four other cases already registered against Dr Manzoor in different cities.

He has been facing trials in three cases. The PHOTA has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against acquittal of Dr Manzoor in the case registered by Federal Investigation Agency in Rawalpindi in 2020.

The lawyer maintained that in three cases, there were allegations that Dr Manzoor was involved in illegal transplantations that results in deaths of seven recipients in Rawalpindi and Multan and was arrested red handed in Faisalabad in 2019.

The PHOTA law officer further said that the accused doctor was an anesthetist but had been functioning as a urologist carrying out surgeries for kidney transplants.

Rawat police booked Dr Manzoor with other accused under section 10 of The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 2010 (removal of human organ without authority) and under different sections of Pakistan Penal Code related to abduction, illegal confinement, cheating, and impersonation.

In the FIR registered on the complaint of Rawat police, it is stated a team of law enforcers was present near Rafih Block in Phase-VIII Bahria Town at about midnight for routine patrolling and checking when they got a tip off that hue and cry was being heard from a house near Abu Bakkar Block on main Bouleward where an ambulance and other suspicious vehicles were seen.

When the raiding party reached outside house 2749, they heard the loud shouting asking for help. The police knocked at the door and rang the bell but no one opened the main gate. Fearing for human life, the law enforcers made their way into the house and found a man tied on a stretcher in a room shouting for help. He was receiving some medication through drip. On seeing the police, another man present in the room tried to escape but was overpowered by the law enforcers.

The arrested man identified himself as Zafarullah Khan Cheema, resident of Hafizabad. He told the police that there were six other men in the house when the law enforcers came in and made their way out via the house roof.

The arrested man revealed the names of the escaped men as Imran Arshad, operation theatre assistant and resident of Dhamial Rawalpindi, Dr Manzoor, surgeon and resident of Hazroo Attock, Dr Amir, resident of Mansehra, Gul Nawaz, medical assistant and resident of Attock, Zaib, medical assistant and resident of Attock, and Rafique alias Fiqa.

The man who was tied with the stretcher identified himself as Hanan Zahid, resident of Phase-VIII Bahria Town. He said that the escaped men called him to the house on the pretext of providing him a job. He said when he reached the house, they made him drink juice with some medicine that made him unconscious. He was then taken to a hospital in PWD where some medical tests were conducted on him. He said when he was brought back and he got his consciousness and found himself tied with the stretcher.

Hanan further told the police that when he asked them why he had been administered the drip and tied with the stretcher, they said his medical examination had revealed that one of his kidneys was not functional well and needed to be removed. They said that he would get the job after his operation was conducted to remove the kidney. He told the police that the escaped men forcibly kidnapped him and want to remove one of his kidney illegally.

The arrested Zafarullah told the police that the house was being used to remove the kidneys and then sell to foreign and Pakistani nationals for further transplantations. The police recovered different medicines and operation theatre apparatus from the house.