Police on Monday recovered the body of a doctor who had been missing since Thursday in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Abbottabad from a nearby forest.

Police sources told Dawn that the body of Dr Warda Mushtaq was recovered from the nearby forests of Thandiyani. Her body has now been shifted to the hospital for an autopsy.

Police also arrested a friend of the deceased and her husband in relation to the case.

Mushtaq — a doctor at the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed hospital — had been missing since Thursday, prompting her colleagues and the leaders of the Provincial Doctors Association and Grand Health Alliance to stage a demonstration and boycott hospital duties.

They had announced that if she was not found by Monday, protests would be extended to hospitals across the province.

Following the news of the death, the hospital staff staged a protest and blocked the main Karakoram Highway (KKH) road from Fawara Chowk, assailing the police for “delayed action.”

FIR

As per the first information report (FIR), filed by her father under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), Mushtaq left the hospital with the wife of a well-known Abbottabad businessman and went to Jadoon Plaza, Mandian, within the jurisdiction of Mirpur Police Station, after which all contacts with her were lost.

The FIR further detailed that Mushtaq had given her friend 67 tolas of gold for safekeeping in 2023 and went to Dubai. However, due to a lack of accommodation, she returned and demanded the return of the gold from her; however, the suspect kept evading it.

Police have initiated action against the three suspects named in the FIR, arresting Mushtaq’s friend, her husband and the deceased’s driver.

Subsequently, the suspect filed a petition with the district police officer (DPO), stating that she had returned the 67 tolas of gold to Mushtaq the day she went missing.

She further alleged that Mushtaq had “borrowed Rs8.3 million, for which she gave me five cheques”, and the two parted ways.

“I have no contact with her and I have no information about her,” she said, adding that she came to know about the incident while she was at a wedding.”

The suspects alleged that “this was a conspiracy to defame her husband, who is a businessman.”

“DPO Abbottabad should conduct an impartial inquiry into this so that the real facts can come out,” she said.

KP governor orders probe

Expressing sympathy over the death of Mushtaq, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi sought a report into the incident.

In a statement issued today, he termed it a “serious and unforgettable incident, vowing to punish the perpetrators.“

“As the governor, I share the grief of the doctors’ community across the province and the family of the martyred doctor over the said incident,” Kundi was quoted as saying.