NAWABSHAH: Police were called in to rescue Peoples University of Medical & Health Sciences (PUMHS) Vice Chancellor Dr Azam Hussain Yousufani who was confined to his office by a group of agitating paramedics on Thursday.

Dr Yousufani said the group led by newly-elected office-bearers of the paramedics` union wanted some of their demands met forthwith. He said he advised them to allow him a day to consider them but they got angry and locked him in his office. He said he had to call the police for his security.

Reports from the campus suggested that Paramedical Staff Union president Mohammed Ali Jamali, senior vice president Sajjad Hussain Zardari and general secretary Syed Azam Hyder Shah along with other colleagues enforced a strike in the university and locked its gates during the agitation. They also held negotiations with the VC and after not being obliged by him, they locked him inside his office and refused to allow him to get into his car to leave for home. On the VC`s distress call, a police team entered the campus and escorted him out of the university.

The union leaders, however, denied having enforced a strike or closed the varsity`s gates. They said they wanted the VC to arrange for a bus for the paramedics` visit to the shrine of Sufi Saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar but he not only refused to oblige them but also adopted an insulting attitude towards them. They said another of their demands was to relieve two clerks of their watchmen duties. The VC also appeared not ready to accept it, they said.

Dr Yousufani, later speaking to local journalists, reiterated his claim that he was held hostage by the agitating paramedics until the police team rescued him.