The gory incident of shooting two innocent women in Pakistan Medical Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) Islamabad on January 14 at night is shocking. According to a report in a section of the press under the caption ‘Mistaken target: Two women shot dead in PIMS published on January 15 two women, including the mother of a joint secretary of the Cabinet Division, were killed during an attack on an under-trial prisoner at the VIP ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad on Saturday night January 14, 2012.
The report further said that the under-trial prisoner Rana Mohammad Sarwart alias Ayub, charged with kidnapping for ransom and murder, was admitted to room No 8 of the VIP ward on the ground floor of the PIMS Islamabad on December 13 after being injured in an attack inside the district and sessions court. But the two attackers mistakenly appeared in front of room No 9, where the joint secretary’s mother Saliha Bibi, 93, was admitted, and opened indiscriminate fire at the patient and her daughter Bilqis Bibi, 60. As a result, both the women died on the spot. While another attendant of Ms Saliha identified as Qamrunisa suffered injuries.
But it is surprisingly that even 24 hours after two women were shot dead and another was injured at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), police could not find any clue of the two attackers. According to another report no clue could be found from the CCTV footage to the attackers, as they had entered the hospital through the broken grills of its boundary and reached the VIP ward from a dark passageway. This reflects inefficiency and carelessness on the part of the police escorts responsible to guard the under-trial prisoner and at the same time PIMS’s security and its managements for having a very poor access control in hospital especially in the VIP ward where a prisoner was admitted. The worst part of the incident is that it has happened right under the nose of government in one of the most so-called high profile and secured hospital in a highly sensitive zone of the capital. Shame for PIMS and Islamabad police.
It is suggested that a separate ward for treatment of prisoners should be made in all hospitals instead of putting the lives of ordinary patients at risk by admitting them in the ward where prisoners are admitted. A comprehensive physical security plan of the hospital should be prepared by hiring the services of a security expert and private security personnel should only be hired after they are trained in hospital security.
SQN LDR (RETD) S.AUSAF HUSAIN,
Karachi, January 17.