After remaining on strike for about a month, doctors in Balochistan have vowed to continue their boycott in protest against the government’s inability to recover a senior doctor kidnapped last month.
Following the approval of his bail petition by a session court in Quetta, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan chapter President Dr Sultan Tareen addressed a press conference at a general body meeting of the association.
He said the provincial government was not serious in making efforts to recover Dr Saeed Ahmed Khan. He announced that the strike would continue until Dr Saeed’s recovery.
Tareen further said that unless all registered cases against doctors were withdrawn, emergency services in the hospitals would not be restored. “Suspensions, arrests, transfers and other similar tactics cannot demoralise the doctors,” he added.
Meanwhile, doctors at the Sandeman Headquarters Hospital have decided to end their strike and open the emergency department to attend serious cases.
Four dead, 2 injured in Balochistan violence
Four people were killed and another two were injured in a landmine blast and firing incidents in Bolan and Dera Bugti districts of Balochistan on Monday. Levies officials said a motorcycle carrying two people hit a landmine that went off in Shuran area of Bolan district, resulting in the death of the two while a passerby sustained serious injuries. Local administration handed over the bodies to the heirs after completing legal formalities and started investigation into the case. In another incident, robbers shot dead a person and wounded another in Bagh area of the same district. Levies officials said Liaquat Ali Abro was on his way when the armed men intercepted him in a bid to snatch his motorbike. They opened fire when Abro resisted. He died immediately while the robbers fled from along with the motorcycle. Separately, in the same area, armed bandits wounded a Hindu trader, Sagar Kumar, within the Bagh Police precincts when he resisted against their attempt to snatch his motorbike. Police rushed to the scene and took the injured to a nearby hospital for medical aid. Meanwhile, a man was killed in Kurdan area of Dera Bugti district. Reports said a man was on his way along with his camel when he hit a landmine. As a result, he and his camel were killed on the spot. Security personnel took the deceased, who was identified as Mohammad Ali, to a nearby hospital. The local administration registered a separate case and investigations were underway.