Murtaza Bhutto

A: I saw Murtaza on bed, and he was being attended by two to three doctors.
Ms Ghinwa was also there. His Kamiz (long shirt) was taken off and he
looked unconscious and I did not see much blood. His Shalwar was blood
stained, and the DC asked me to arrange a direct telephone at the hospital.
Q: Did he ask for a hot line at the hospital?
A: The DC got in touch with Niaz Hussain Shah, SDM, to get a hot line from
Clifton telephone exchange. Hameed Haroon was also inside the hospital and
he had asked for an ambulance which perhaps meant that there was a
possibility of shifting Murtaza to some other hospital. The impression I got
was that the condition of the patient had not been good and, therefore, he
was being shifted to some other hospital. I went to the second floor where the
ICU is located.
The DC asked me to arrange for an ambulance. As the Edhi ambulances were
not good, I reported back that AKUH ambulances were not available at that
time either. Hameed Haroon then asked me to get one from St. John's
Ambulance and also try to get one from the AKUH. The DC (South) was
asked by Ashiq Jatoi's family about his whereabouts.
Q: Your job was to find out where Ashiq Jatoi had been taken to?
A: I asked the police to find out where Ashiq was taken. The control room
again said they had no information about him. While I was downstairs three
ambulances from Edhi, St. Johns and AKUH arrived in my presence and the
time then was about 10:30 pm. There were around 10-20 policemen outside,
and they were stopping photographers from entering the hospital.
Q: There were seven SDMs at the hospital, yet all of them put together could
not locate where the dead and injured were.
A: I came to know that some have died, the exact number is not known.
Q: What did you do next?
A: He (Murtaza) was taken to the operation theatre. He was dead at about
quarter to 12 midnight. Tariq Niazi, another SDM, was in the hospital and
policemen also came there on the second floor after the death of Mir Murtaza.
I also saw Nasir Hussain, brother-in-law of Mir Murtaza, who was very angry
Murtaza Bhutto; Copyright © www.bhutto.org
251