"Inside Islamabad Hospitals: Harrowing Tales from the PTI Crackdown"

Government claims that security agencies did not fire from the top in the ‘Grand Operation’

Farhat Javed

BBC Urdu.com, Islamabad

After the protest in Islamabad for the release of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan and the government’s crackdown on the protesters, what is currently the most discussed topic in Pakistan is the number of deaths and injuries during this period.

Various leaders of the Tehreek-e-Insaf have claimed that the number of deaths of party workers is between 20 and 280, while hundreds of workers were also injured. On the other hand, the government claims that security agencies did not fire from the top in the ‘Grand Operation’.

So the question is, how many people died and how many were injured in the operation on Tuesday night and how?

How many bodies and how many injured in hospitals?

When the BBC team visited the Polyclinic and PIMS Hospital in Islamabad to investigate, it was found that the Polyclinic administration in a statement on Thursday denied that the body of any person who was allegedly killed in an operation against the protesters had been brought to the hospital. However, according to hospital records available to the BBC, there were at least three bodies of people who had been shot there on the evening of November 26, and two of them died in the hospital.

Hospital staff also said that one of the bodies was still in the Polyclinic morgue until Wednesday, while two had been handed over to the relatives. A doctor at the same hospital also claimed that police authorities had prevented them from handing over the bodies to the heirs. It should be noted that earlier, some heirs had also made statements that the bodies were not being handed over to them.

When the BBC spoke to Federal Minister for Information Atta Tarar about this, he said that the police or law enforcement agencies ‘did not fire on the protesters. If firing had been done, the post-mortem of the bodies would have been available.’

However, two medical staff members of the polyclinic itself told the BBC that they were ‘prevented by the police from conducting post-mortems of the bodies.’

On Tuesday night, after law enforcement agencies raided Jinnah Avenue, PTI workers were dispersed from there.

As for PIMS Hospital, the hospital administration did not provide access to its records. However, according to BBC information, the bodies of two PTI workers from Shangla and Mardan were brought there and their heirs have taken the bodies from the hospital.

The bodies of four of the five people who died of gunshot wounds on Tuesday are no longer in the hospitals, but the BBC found several injured people who were brought there after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf protest who had been shot.

At least three doctors at the polyclinic told the BBC that dozens of workers who had been shot since evening had been brought to the hospital. “We have brought at least 45 to 55 civilians who were shot.”

Speaking to the BBC, government minister Atta Tarar termed the allegations as propaganda by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), saying that if there was evidence of police or Rangers firing, then the PTI would have brought the evidence.

He also alleged that PTI workers were in possession of modern weapons and that protesters had injured a large number of police and Rangers personnel and there were also fatalities.

‘All those screams are not going away from my ears’

One such injured person was accompanied at the polyclinic by his wife Samia (not her real name), who was also an eyewitness to the incidents that took place on Jinnah Avenue on Tuesday night.

‘There were only screams. That’s it. Only screams! Everyone was running for their lives.’

It was around 9 pm when Samia suddenly heard the sound of gunfire and then screams and cries started everywhere. She was sitting in her car under the same flyover on Jinnah Avenue waiting for her husband, who had arrived a few minutes earlier to attend a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally.

‘I thought it was a tear gas shelling. People were running. Then I saw my husband. He was sitting on his knees with both his hands on the road. I ran towards him. There was shooting everywhere.’

When Samia told the BBC, she and her sister were sitting in a hospital room in Islamabad, wearing masks. In front of them was her husband, who had been shot in the shoulder and had undergone surgery just hours earlier.

‘It was like a war. I had his blood on my hands. I couldn’t stop hearing all the screams.’

‘How can I talk to you openly now?’ Samia’s hands were shaking as she said this, and the mask on her face was wet with tears.

Thousands of people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had reached Islamabad as part of the PTI protest convoy.

‘When I left home, I knew that Imran Khan would be brought back or I would be shot’

‘Let’s all go out’, was the warning given by a security official posted at PIMS. He is on duty in a ward here and when we were talking to a PTI worker undergoing treatment here, he was repeatedly coming in and trying to listen to us.

When we reached PIMS, there were extraordinary security measures everywhere. Rangers and police personnel were present at the wards, emergency rooms and outside gates. Questioning was being done to enter the hospital, while the staff was keeping an eye on any attempt to talk to the injured PTI workers in the wards.

A senior police officer in the hospital premises introduced the BBC to an ASP who was told that he had been shot in the forehead. At PIMS, the BBC also found another policeman who suffered facial injuries from stone pelting by protesters.

However, it was here that the BBC met at least four injured people who said they had been shot twice in different parts of their bodies. These people had come from different parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to join the PTI protest.

One of the injured was moaning in pain and could only say that he had been shot in the stomach and shoulder. Another injured person said that he had been shot twice during the firing on the expressway at around 5pm. He said that another worker who was there before him had also been shot.

“I was on the expressway. Suddenly the firing started and the man standing in front of me was shot in the head.” He claimed that “I saw him dying in front of me. After that, the next two bullets hit me.

Another injured PTI worker, Amin Khan (pseudonym), who was still in PIMS, said that the firing continued intermittently after 5 pm.

“I am not talking about rubber bullets, I am talking about real bullets. I myself put a dozen injured people in an ambulance with my own hands and brought them to this hospital. How can they say today that they do not have any injured people?”

Amin Khan repeatedly took off his oxygen mask to talk to us. He said that when the firing started after 9 pm, he was hit by two bullets. “When I left home, I knew that either they would bring Imran Khan back or I would get shot.” ​​

“The administration is not giving us the patient’s file”

According to the PIMS administration, 66 members of law enforcement agencies and 33 civilians were brought for treatment during the PTI protest.

Amin Khan’s family members were also present there and said that the PIMS administration was not providing the patient’s medical records. “We want to shift our patient to a better hospital but the PIMS administration is refusing to give us his records and files.”

The same claim was made by other patients present there while speaking to the BBC. When the BBC spoke to PIMS spokesperson Dr Aneza Jalil about the allegation of not providing medical records, she simply said, “All patients are being treated.”

When asked about the number of civilians and personnel injured in the shootings at PIMS and how many bodies have been brought there, the spokesperson did not respond. However, she shared a statement issued by PIMS, according to which, “During the PTI protest, 66 members of law enforcement agencies and 33 civilians were brought to PIMS, most of whom were discharged after treatment due to minor injuries, while a few are still undergoing treatment.”

The statement also said that “the news circulating on social media regarding the number of deaths and the nature of the protesters’ injuries is baseless.”

“To date, we have not performed as many surgeries in one night as were performed on the night of the operation.”

Speaking to the BBC, doctors at the polyclinic and PIMS He said he could not speak about it on condition of anonymity due to fear, but a doctor, speaking about the night of the operation, said that he had “never performed as many surgeries in one night as we did on the night of the operation.”

A doctor at the polyclinic said, “Some of the injured came in so critical condition that instead of waiting for them to be given anesthesia, we had to start the surgeries. There were many patients who had lost a lot of blood.”

Speaking to the BBC, another doctor said, “We had such a rush that we performed two surgeries on one bed and removed bullets. What I saw here that night, I will never forget.”

When the BBC questioned Information Minister Atta Tarar about these statements by the doctors, he said, “I think some medical professionals have clearly shown their political affiliations.” There is a Young Doctors Association affiliated with the PTI, so I don’t know which doctors you are talking about, but I can definitely confirm that the medical superintendent, the hospital in-charge and the health ministry have issued written information about this and they have clearly denied it.’

‘Don’t put our name on record’

These injured people being treated in these hospitals do not tell visitors that they are PTI workers until they are sure that the person asking is not a government official or a police or Rangers officer. They fear that they may be arrested.

The BBC spoke to several doctors and staff at the Polyclinic Hospital in Islamabad who said that ‘they were under pressure from the police to hand over the injured to them.’

Several doctors at the polyclinic told the BBC that dozens of workers who had been shot since evening had been brought to the hospital. “There were many who asked for their names to be removed and many who requested that their names not be included in the record,” a hospital doctor and a staff member said. “The injured were saying that they were afraid of being detained if their names were included in the record.”

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf official from Punjab who was present at the polyclinic told the BBC that he had helped dozens of PTI workers to leave the hospital during the operation.

He was still in the hospital at that time getting information about patients who were still undergoing treatment.

Medical staff at both hospitals told the BBC that they were being pressured by the administration, due to which they could not provide information.

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