Dean Nelson and Mohammad Shehzad

Police in Pakistan have arrested a gang of Afghans who were caught removing kidneys from the bodies of Kashmiri earthquake victims. The four men were discovered carrying a freezer box containing 15 organs from corpses trapped in rubble.

As aid agencies penetrate deeper into Kashmir's remotest valleys in search of survivors, the Afghan gang and other kidney traders have been racing to find dead bodies and survivors willing to sell their own organs.

The earthquake three weeks ago killed more than 57,000 people. The disclosure that organ traffickers are at work in the area came as relief agencies warned that they were fighting a losing battle to prevent thousands more deaths from hypothermia when the snows arrive next month.

According to Save the Children, 750,000 people - including 300,000 children - are without sufficient shelter. "Time is running out," a spokeswoman said.

"These 300,000 children are at critical risk of exposure to winter weather. Snow has started to fall in some parts of the earthquake affected villages and overnight temperatures are dropping far below freezing."

In the town of Bagh, close to the earthquake's epicentre, a handwritten note was pinned to the entrance of one tent in a temporary camp saying "kidney for sale".

It had been posted by a 33-year-old man who gave his name only as Rumzan. His brother Bashir had been crushed in the rubble when the quake struck, leaving Rumzan to care for seven children in a small tent.

"Some months ago I heard on BBC radio that a woman in Dhaka had put up an ad to sell her one eye to support her family," he said. "This gave me the idea to sell my kidney."

A kidney broker in Bagh said that he knew of Rumzan's intentions and had found a foreign client willing to pay £2,400 for the kidney. His commission for fixing the deal will be £600.

"Rumzan is lucky to get a foreign client," the broker said. "Had it been a local client he would not have got more than £1,200.

"I will take Rumzan to Lahore, along with his family, to have his pre- operative tests and to sign legal papers. I will take care of his every need until the kidney is donated."

It was unlikely that the organs were in a fit state for any successful transplantation, but the men had planned to sell them to hospitals in Lahore and Rawalpindi. They had been working as jobbing butchers in Peshawar and were said to have believed that the kidneys would make their fortunes


Source: The Sunday Times, October 30, 2005