By Christian George
Pakistani police have cracked down on kidney harvesters hidden in a small clinic at Rawalpindi near Islamabad on Monday night.
Police and health department who raided the hideout arrested 10 people, including doctors and nurses.
Hassan Akhtar, head of a Punjab Human Organ and Transplant Authority team, said three suspected donors and two recipients, one from Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, were also arrested.
Mr Akhtar, who led the team, said further raids were conducted on Tuesday to arrest the remaining network members.
According to Peoples Gazette, it was discovered that some people would go to villages and small towns in the central province of Punjab and convince people to sell kidneys to wealthy foreigners, mostly from Arab countries and some from Europe.
Findings revealed that wealthy foreign buyers pay up to $50,000 for a kidney transplant but the donor may end up with $3,000, according to a nephrologist in Islamabad.
The intermediaries make chunk of the profit at the expense of the donor.
However, the country had
enacted a law to control the illegal sale of body organs in 2010 that envisaged up to 10 years in jail and a fine for transplants other than at established hospitals.
Experts say that the law was not effective due to rise in corruption, poverty as well as established criminal gangs working beyond the country’s boundaries.
