"My hands were covered in my husband's blood": What the Media team saw in Islamabad hospitals after the grand operation against PTI.

In Islamabad, following the protests for the release of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and the government crackdown on demonstrators, the most discussed issue in Pakistan right now is the number of deaths and injuries during this time.

Various PTI leaders have claimed that the number of workers killed ranges from 20 to 280, with hundreds more injured. On the other hand, the government asserts that security forces did not fire a single shot during the "grand operation."

So, the question remains: how many people lost their lives and how many were injured during the operation on Tuesday night, and how did it happen?

How many bodies and how many injured in hospitals?

To unravel this mystery, when the BBC team visited Islamabad's Polyclinic and PIMS hospitals, they discovered that the Polyclinic administration had issued a statement on Thursday denying the arrival of any body at the hospital allegedly due to the operation against protesters. However, according to hospital records available to the BBC, at least three bodies, all of which had gunshot wounds, were present at the hospital on the evening of November 26, and two of them had died at the hospital.

Hospital staff also confirmed that one body had been in the Polyclinic morgue until Wednesday, while the other two had been handed over to the families. One doctor from the same hospital claimed that police authorities had prevented them from handing over the bodies to the families. Earlier, some relatives had also stated that the bodies were not being handed over to them.

Regarding this, the BBC spoke to Federal Minister for Information, Atta Tarar, who stated that "no firing was done by the police or law enforcement agencies on the protesters. If firing had occurred, there would have been post-mortem reports of the bodies."

However, two medical staff members from Polyclinic told the BBC that they were "stopped by the police from conducting post-mortems on the bodies."

Regarding the hospital, the PIMS administration did not grant access to the records. However, according to BBC's information, two bodies of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers, from Shangla and Mardan, were brought to the hospital, and their families had already taken the bodies from the hospital.

Of the five people who were killed by gunshots on Tuesday, four of their bodies are no longer in the hospitals, but the BBC found several injured individuals who had been brought to the hospital after the PTI protests, all of whom had gunshot wounds.

At least three doctors at the Polyclinic told the BBC that dozens of workers had been brought to the hospital from the evening onwards with gunshot wounds. "At least 45 to 55 people were brought to us with gunshot wounds."

While speaking to the BBC, government minister Atta Tarar dismissed these allegations as PTI propaganda, saying that if there is evidence of police or Rangers firing, PTI should provide the proof.

He also accused PTI workers of possessing modern weapons and claimed that the protesters had injured a large number of police and Rangers personnel, and fatalities also occurred.

"The screams from my ears won't stop."

At the Polyclinic, one of the injured patients was accompanied by his wife, Samiya (a fictitious name), who was also an eyewitness to the events that took place on Jinnah Avenue on Tuesday night.

"There were only screams. That’s it. Just screams! Everyone was running to save their lives."

It was around 9 PM when Samiya suddenly heard gunshots, followed by screams from all directions. She was sitting in her car under the flyover on Jinnah Avenue, waiting for her husband, who had just arrived a few minutes earlier to attend a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally.

"I thought it was the firing from tear gas shells. People were running. Then I saw my husband. He was sitting on the road with both hands on the ground, kneeling. I ran towards him. Gunshots were firing everywhere."

As Samiya shared this with the BBC, she and her sister were sitting in a hospital room in Islamabad wearing masks. On the bed in front of them was her husband, who had been shot in the shoulder and had undergone surgery a few hours earlier.

"It was like an apocalypse, as if a war was happening. My hands were covered in his blood. The screams in my ears still haven’t stopped."

"How can I speak openly with you now?" Samiya said, her hands trembling, and the mask on her face was wet with tears.

"When I left home, I knew we would either bring back Imran Khan or get shot."

"Let's everyone go outside," warned a security officer stationed at PIMS. He was assigned to duty in one of the wards and kept coming in to eavesdrop while we were talking to a PTI worker who was receiving treatment.

When we arrived at PIMS, extraordinary security measures were in place. Rangers and police officers were present at the wards, emergency rooms, and outer doors. There were strict checks to enter the hospital, and if there was an attempt to talk to injured PTI workers in the wards, the staff was keeping a close eye on us.

A senior police officer at the hospital introduced us to an ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) who had reportedly been shot in the forehead. At the same hospital, BBC also met another police officer whose face had been injured due to stone-pelting by protesters.

However, at least four injured individuals were found by the BBC, who claimed they had been shot in different parts of their bodies, with two bullets each. These people had come from various regions of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to join the PTI protest.

One of the injured was groaning in pain and could only mention that he had been shot in the stomach and shoulder. Another injured person explained that he was shot with two bullets around 5 PM near the expressway. He said that another protester near him had also been shot before he was hit.

"I was on the expressway. Suddenly, gunshots rang out, and the man standing in front of me was shot in the head," he recalled. "I saw him dying right in front of me. Then, the next two bullets hit me."

Another injured PTI worker, Amin Khan (a fictitious name), told the BBC that after 5 PM, gunfire continued sporadically.

"I’m not talking about rubber bullets, I’m talking about real bullets," he said. "I personally helped load a dozen injured people into ambulances and brought them to this hospital. How can they say they don’t have any injured people here today?"

Amin Khan repeatedly removed his oxygen mask to talk. He explained that after the shooting around 9 PM, he was hit with two bullets. "When I left home, I knew that either we would bring Imran Khan back or we would get shot."

"Administration is not giving us the patient's file."

Amin Khan's Family and the Hospital's Refusal to Provide Medical Records

Amin Khan’s family members, also present at the hospital, claimed that the PIMS administration was refusing to provide the patient’s medical records. They said, "We want to transfer our patient to a better hospital, but PIMS administration is refusing to give us the record and file."

This claim was echoed by other patients at the hospital when speaking to the BBC. When the BBC asked PIMS spokesperson Dr. Aneesa Jaleel about the allegation of not providing medical records, she simply responded, "All patients are being treated."

When asked about the number of civilians and security personnel injured by gunshots at PIMS and the number of bodies brought in, the spokesperson did not provide a direct answer. However, she shared a statement from PIMS, which mentioned that "66 law enforcement personnel and 33 civilians were brought to PIMS during the PTI protest. Most of them were treated and discharged due to minor injuries, while a few are still under treatment."

The statement also claimed, "Reports circulating on social media about the number of deaths and the nature of injuries to protesters are baseless."

Surgeries and Overwhelming Pressure on Doctors

Doctors at both PIMS and Polyclinic hospitals, speaking anonymously due to fears of repercussions, revealed the immense pressure they faced. One doctor said, "I have never performed so many surgeries in one night as I did during that operation night."

A doctor from Polyclinic shared, "Some of the injured were in such critical condition that we had to start surgeries immediately without waiting for anesthesia. Many were losing a lot of blood."

Another doctor said, "We had so many patients that we had to perform surgeries on two patients at once on one bed and remove bullets. What I saw that night, I will never forget."

When the BBC asked Minister of Information Ata Tarar about these doctors' statements, he suggested that some medical professionals had clearly expressed their political affiliations. He mentioned the Young Doctors Association's connection to PTI but did not confirm the doctors’ accounts. He added that the medical superintendent and the Ministry of Health had issued written statements denying these allegations.

Fear Among the Injured and Pressure on Medical Staff.

The injured patients at these hospitals were hesitant to reveal their affiliation with PTI, only doing so when they were sure the person asking was not a government official or a member of the police or Rangers. They feared being arrested.

BBC spoke to several doctors and staff members at Islamabad's Polyclinic, who shared that they were under pressure from the police to hand over the injured protesters. They described how dozens of injured PTI workers had been brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds. Many of them requested that their names not be recorded, fearing detention.

One doctor and a hospital staff member explained, "The injured were saying that if their names were recorded, they feared they would be taken into custody."

A PTI official from Punjab at Polyclinic shared that during the operations, they helped many PTI workers leave the hospital after treatment.

Both hospitals' medical staff reported that they were under pressure from the administration, which was preventing them from sharing any details.

Reference:BBC Urdu