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www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-7-221737-Kidnapped-doctor-...

PESHAWAR: A prominent physician Professor Dr Syed Amjad Taqweem reached home on Saturday after he was recovered during a clandestine operation from the Jamrud subdivision of Khyber Agency.

A lot of people including friends, relatives and doctors reached Dr Amjad Taqweem's residence in Hayatabad to greet him on his safe release.

Talking to his guests at his home, Dr Ajmad Taqweem denied having paid any ransom to the kidnappers. He insisted that his release became possible as a result of an operation by the law-enforcement agencies somewhere in the remote mountainous parts of Jamrud subdivision.

Some of the doctors told The News that he had told them his life was still at risk.

"I think his family paid ransom and didn't tell him, which obviously many people do in such circumstances. But when he said that he is still at risk, it means he might have been released due to action by the authorities," a doctor told The News on condition of anonymity.

Interestingly, Assistant Political Agent, Jamrud, Jehangir Azam Wazir claimed that they raided a house in remote mountains of Taoda Mena village in Jamrud, where Dr Amjad Taqweem was held captive, but they could not make any arrest as the kidnappers had already escaped.

Dr Amjad Taqweem, who was in-charge of the Medical C Unit at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), was kidnapped from Phase-7 in Hayatabad on December 3, 2013. He offered Isha prayer in a mosque near his house when armed men waiting for him bundled him into a car and drove away.

Though two other doctors were kidnapped before him in Peshawar, Dr Amjad Taqweem's kidnapping sent a wave of shock and concern and triggered widespread protests by the doctors in public and private sector hospitals of the province.

On the call of Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), an association of public sector doctors headed by cardiologist Dr Shah Sawar, announced strike in the province.

Dr Shah Sawar and his colleagues for the first time succeeded in convincing management of the two major private hospitals, Rahman Medical Institute (RMI) and Northwest General Hospital, both located in Hayatabad in Peshawar, to keep their hospitals closed as a mark of protest over the kidnapping of Dr Amjad Taqweem and others.

The doctors had boycotted duties and paralysed the health delivery system in the three tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar, including Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex.

Panicked by the doctors' strike, the PTI-led provincial government was misled by some of the doctors and it removed the chief executives of two major hospitals, LRH and HMC, as the government felt that these two senior doctors had instigated the doctors to go on strike. This obviously wasn't true.

Later, the family of Dr Amjad Taqweem approached the PDA leadership and requested it to call off the strike as it was endangering the life of the abducted physician. The doctors responded positively and ended the strike.

The government still has to recover Dr Mujahid Bangash, the agency surgeon of the Frontier Region Peshawar who was kidnapped a couple of months ago from Peshawar.

Besides PDA, the Health Employees Coordination Council headed by Associate Professor Dr Musa Kalim, Postgraduate Medical Institute Teaching Staff Association led by Prof Dr Waqar Alam Jan, Khyber Medical College Teaching Staff Association headed by Dr Qaisar Inayat and Dr Alamgir Yousafzai, president Young Doctors Association, played their role in organising protest rallies for recovery of Dr Amjad Taqweem.

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