SHANGLA: The residents of Alpuri on Friday threatened to take to the streets if the paramedical staff transferred to the tehsil headquarters hospital, Puran, from the district headquarters hospital, allegedly at the behest of MPA Abdul Munim, were not returned to the main health f acility of Shangla immediately.

Talking to reporters at the press club here, they said over a dozen staff of district headquarters hospital, Alpuri, had been taken to the tehsil headquarters hos-pital, Puran, at the orders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Abdul Munim, who is also special assistant to chief minister on tourism.

`I came to know that about 12 nursing staff, seven male and five female, have been transferred from the major hospital of Shangla to the hospital in the native town of MPA Abdul Munim in Puran, due to which the DHQ hospital has become like a rural health centre,` Raza Shah, a resident of Lelonai lamented.

He said patients from throughout Shangla district visited the DHQ hospital, Alpuri, but owing to shortage of nursing staff the hospital was unable to cater to a large number of patients.

Fazal Rabi, an activist, said MPA from another consutuency had usurped the rights of the people of Alpuri tehsil by transferring staff from the main hospital to the hospital in his constituency.He said the DHQ hospital had already been facing shortage of staff, including doctors.

The locals threatened to take to the streets if the staf f of DHQ hospital was not returned to it.

When contacted, senior doctors in the hospital, confirmed the large-scale transfers from the DHQ hospital. `MPA Abdul Munim was directly involved in the transfers and he forcibly took no-objection certificates from the hospital`s medical superintendent,` a doctor alleged on condition of anonymity.

MPA Munim told Dawn on contact that 12 staff members of the DHQ hospital had been transferred to T HQ Puran as the latter was facing shortage of staff after it was upgraded to category C hospital.

The MPA said posts in DHQ hospital would be sanctioned soon and claimed that some staf fers from other hospitals hadbeen transferred to the Alpuri hospital.

BLACK DAY RAL LY: A rally was taken out from the district secretariat Alpuri on Friday to mark illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir by India as the Black day.

Deputy Commissioner Shangla Abdul Hameed Khan led the rally which was also attended by heads of allline departments, teachers and students of schools and colleges and general public.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with the messages expressing solidarity with the subjugated people of India-held Kashmir, the participants also chanted slogans against New Delhi for its brutality in Kashmir.

Earlier, a public meeting was also held to mark the Black Day, where speakers said the Black Day was celebrated throughout the Muslim world against the Indian atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir.