COAS arranges treatment of two heart patients sent back by India at AFIC

What can be described as a nice gesture, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir has taken it upon himself to get the treatment of two children, who had gone to India for the treatment of heart disease but were sent back following the Pahalgam terror attack, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.   

Shahid Ahmad, a resident of Hyderabad, Sindh, who is the father of the two kids namely nine-year-old Abdullah and seven-year-old Minsa, has said he is thankful to the army chief for immediately arranging the treatment of his kids. 

“Now my children are being properly treated at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology & National Institute of Heart Diseases (AFIC & NIHD), and it is something beyond my expectations,” he has said, adding, “I am not facing any difficulty in this regard.” 

Giving details, Shahid said that he and his children arrived in Faridabad in India on April 21. “On April 22, medical tests of my kids were conducted, while on the very next day, doctors told me that the patients would have to be operated upon.”

He informed that on April 24, he received a call from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, in which he was told to leave India within 48 hours. “I condemn the Modi government’s anti-Pakistan decision,” he has said, adding this is despite the fact that every religion, including Hinduism, attached great importance to humanity. 

Shahid went on to say that he had been trying to get visas for India for the last seven years. “But by sending me and my kids at a time when the treatment was underway, the BJP government committed an inhumane act.”

On the other hand, Mehboob Sultan, a doctor at the AFIC & NIHD, has said that both the children were heart patients since their birth. “They will undergo surgery in phases. I don’t think they need to go abroad for the surgery since we have the best surgeons serving here at the institute, and we have already conducted surgeries on so many kids.”

Brigadier Dr. Khurram Akhtar has said that the AFIC & NIHD is the Pakistan Army’s state-of-the-art hospital, where heart patients are provided treatment, which is at par with international standards.