Vidyajyothi Prof. Rezvi Sheriff, founder and owner of the Western Hospital, has filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department over allegations on social media that his hospital had treated a suicide bomber Zaharan.
“I have taken action and filed a complaint with CID cybercrimes division to investigate these malicious and baseless allegations,” he said. “This is an attempt to sling mud at me and my institution. The allegation that we have been treating these perpetrators of the attack is untrue. We do not have an eye-care specialist to treat such injuries nor have we tried to conceal information from any authorities.”
He said that the hospital has 120 staffers and of them, 105 are non-Muslims. “Even in our kidney transplant programme, we have a mix of races receiving and donating kidneys without any racial bias.”
He added that a vernacular newspaper had also carried a statement from Zahran’s wife that the perpetrators of the Easter bombing were treated at the National Hospital in Colombo. “Therefore, this accusation is complete misinformation and is being circulated on social media without any verification or evidence.”
Excerpts of the statement
I, Vidyajyothi Professor Rezvi Sheriff, would like to bring to your attention a social media post aimed at mudslinging both against me and my institution, Western Hospital. All this appears to be related to the Easter Sunday tragedy.
Let me start by saying that my institution and I totally condemn this attack which took the lives of many innocent people. We grieve with the families who lost their loved ones and pray for the quick recovery of those injured.
I have taken action to inform the authorities and filed a complaint with the CID Cyber Crimes Division and Facebook who will take necessary measures with this heinous slander which is probably racial and has no truth whatsoever in its allegation.
Lankadeepa newspaper printed on 12/05/2019 states that the perpetrator of the Easter bombing attack was treated at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) for two months according to the statement given by terrorist Zahran’s wife to the Police.
Therefore, accusing Western Hospital is complete misinformation and is being circulated on the social media without any verification or evidence. Please don’t spread false information that will only cause hate.
I am writing this note with a heavy heart to inform the public about several who are totally gullible and adding to the misinformation with unkind accusations.
My institution and I will continue to serve my Motherland with love, kindness and empathy not looking at race, religion or status as I have always done.
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