CM requests US CG to issue visa quickly for paralysed cadet

The Sindh chief minister urged the US consul general in Karachi on Saturday to issue a visa to a Cadet College Larkana student, paralysed because of torture allegedly inflicted on him by his instructors, as early as possible so he could be treated at a hospital in Cincinnati.

Murad Ali Shah met US Consul
General Grace Shelton at the Chief
Minister’s House and handed over a recommendation letter and other documents related to the paralysed cadet to her.

The consul general assured him that the visa would be issued in the minimum time possible.

The cadet, 13-year-old Muhammad Ahmed, was left paralysed and unable to speak after being subjected to torture allegedly by his instructors at the cadet college a few months back.

On the orders of the chief minister, a 10-member board headed by neurosurgeon and head of Civil Hospital Karachi neurology department Prof Junaid Ashraf examined the boy last week and observed that the
thyroid cartilage in his
neck was broken and his injuries indicated that he was indeed “subjected to torture”.

The board recommended that that the boy should be sent to Dr Robin T Cotton, who is known for his work in paediatric otolaryngology and is the director of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Health department officials said around half a million dollars would be spent on the treatment of the boy in the US and the chief minister had already directed the finance department to arrange the funds.

However, no criminal investigation has been launched either by the police or any other law enforcement agency to probe into the torture case.

Some senior doctors and members of the special medical board had hinted that the child might have been
subjected to sexual violence and on resistance the attackers subjected him to brutal torture, leaving him both physically and mentally disabled.