Home Latest News Police Arrest Accused in Spinal Fluid Scam

Police Arrest Accused in Spinal Fluid Scam

by AFP

File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP

Investigators say gang of five confessed to extracting spinal fluid from women and selling it to local government hospital employee

Police have arrested a gang accused of extracting spinal fluid from swindled victims, officials said on Tuesday, the latest case involving Pakistan’s notorious medical black market.

Police in Punjab province’s eastern Hafizabad district arrested five suspects after being tipped off by relatives of a woman victim, who was told the procedure was needed for a program that offers free wedding dowries.

Officials suspect the fluid was being sold on the black market to be used in bone marrow transplants. “They confessed to extracting the spinal cord fluid from at least 10 women in the area and selling it to a cleaner at a local government hospital, who has also been detained,” said Abdul Majeed, an investigator with the Hafizabad police department.

Another police officer, Muhammad Imran, confirmed the incident. “Further investigation is underway,” Majeed said.

The top-selling Urdu-language newspaper, Jang, said the accused had extracted fluid from at least 90 impoverished women who were left disabled by the procedure.

Pakistan is infamous for illegal kidney transplants that have attracted customers from across the world. Last year authorities in Lahore arrested a group of medics for performing illegal kidney transplants for two Oman nationals.

Organs can only be donated by close relatives in Pakistan and buying and selling them is illegal.

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