NAWABSHAH: Patients and their attendants who had arrived from remote areas continued to suffer as doctors at Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences (PUMHS) hospital and private clinics boycotted duties for the third consecutive day on Thursday in protest against attack on a senior colleague and police failure to arrest culprits.

The striking professors and doctors led by pro vice chancellor PUMHS Prof Shamsuddin Shaikh, Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mastoi, Dr Ali Akbar Siyal, Dr Mohammed Ali Sohail and others who held a demonstration outside Nawabshah Press Club said that some unidentified armed men thrashed Dr Mastol, head of orthopaedics department at PUMHS hospital, with belts outside his home and escaped.

Sources said the attackers might be angry attendants of some patient harbouring grudge against the doctor for his alleged misbehaviour or failure to provide preferential treatment to their patient at the hospital.

The protesters said that despite registration of FIR the culprits were not arrested by police. Similar incidents had taken place in past as well but police had failed to provide safety and security to medical fraternity, they said.-Correspondent