Godil moved to undisclosed location from hospital

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement MNA Abdur Rashid Godil was moved to an undisclosed location amid tight security of Rangers and police on Friday evening from the Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) where he was being treated for gunshot wounds after a deadly attack on him on August 18 in the Bahadurabad area of Karachi.
Rashid Godil had survived the attack on his car but was fatally injured while his driver had been killed in the assassination attempt and since then, the Muttahida MNA was under treatment at the Liaquat National Hospital under tight security.
“Today, Muttahida Qaumi Movement MNA Abdur Rashid Godil was formally discharged from the hospital after a panel of doctors allowed to leave the hospital,” the spokesman for LNH, Anjum Rizvi, said.
On the other hand, officials requesting anonymity told The News that Rashid Godil was allowed to leave the hospital at least a week back when a panel of doctors had declared him out of danger and ready to move to his residence but he overstayed at the hospital on the insistence of security officials.
“During last week, security officials conducted four mock exercises to shift Muttahida MNA Rashid Godil from the hospital as they consider him an important asset, whose life is still in danger but he never left his room at the LNH,” an official claimed.
He further said as Godil was barred from air travel, he could not be flown out of the country for the extraction of a bullet from his ribcage, which damaged one of his lungs.
Security officials moved him to some undisclosed location for his protection.
“Today, a convoy of at least 20 vehicles including three civilian cars, several Rangers and police vans and other vehicles, was used to shift Godil to some undisclosed location from the LNH”, he added.
Security officials claimed that despite the presence of three civilian cars with tinted glasses in the security convoy, Godil was placed in a Rangers’ jeep along with Rangers personnel to deceive anybody looking for him.
They claimed that the Muttahida MNA was satisfied with the security provided to him by the security agencies and preferred to move with them for his own security instead of moving to his personal residence.
Investigators were hoping a breakthrough in tracking down culprits behind the attack on Rashid Godil based on his testimony as well as unearthing the network of target killers behind many assassinations in the city, they added.