Rawalpindi-Armed men stormed into Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and created law and order situation apparently on call of a senior doctor of Anaesthesia Department to teach a lesson to some young doctors who went into verbal arguments with him when he refused to pay his food bill to canteen staffers, informed sources on Saturday.
The armed goons reportedly sneaked into doctors’ hostel where the senior doctor humiliated a young doctor allegedly on gunpoint.
A heavy contingent of police rushed to the hospital to control the law and order situation and negotiated with the senior doctor and his armed accomplices in the presence of administration of hospital, they said.
The young doctors demanded that those responsible for this heinous crime should be brought before law. According to sources, a senior doctor namely Shafique Niazi was having food in canteen of BBH on Friday night when the waiter demanded the money from him for the food. They said the doctor refused the bill and started shouting at the waiters while attracting the attention of some young doctors sitting around.
“Two young doctors including Dr Abu Zar of MU-II approached Dr Shafique and requested him to give money to poor canteen owner on which he got infuriated and ransacked the canteen,” sources said. They said a brawl had also occurred between the senior and junior doctors. Sources said Dr Shafique Niazi had threatened the young doctors of teaching them a lesson at hands of his men from outside the hospital.
“Dr Shafique Niazi phoned some outsiders and asked them to come to the hospital along with weapons,” sources said. Within no time, sources said, more than 60 unknown men having weapons stormed into hospital and evacuated the car parking outside Emergency Department besides terrorising the doctors, paramedics and other visitors, sources said.
They said Dr Shafique Niazi along with his accomplices rushed to Doctors’ Hostel where he caught a young doctor namely Mansoor and humiliated him on gunpoint.
Upon calling, a heavy contingent of police also reached in the hospital and called on with the high ups of administration and negotiated with Dr Shafique Niazi and his armed men, sources asserted. “The hospital administration and the police managed to cool down Dr Shafique Niazi and his armed men through intervention of some high and mighty from Mianwali,” sources said.
No legal action was taken against the accused while hospital management and police hushed up the issue, sources said. Later, the dispute was resolved between Dr Shafique Niazi and the young doctors by police and the management of BBH.
When contacted, City Police Officer (CPO) Faisal Rana said a brawl occurred between two doctors namely Shafique and Idrees in BBH. “Police have received a report of incident and further investigation was on,” he said.
Another senior police officer claimed no armed goon entered in BBH rather it was young doctors association which aired the rumour about storming of armed men into BBH.
MS BBH Dr Raffique, while talking to The Nation, said it was a personnel dispute between Dr Shafique Niazi and two young doctors Idrees and Mansoor inside the hospital over a petty issue. He said both sides are levelling allegations on each other of bringing armed men to teach lesson to opponents. “An inquiry launched by me found that no security breach occurred in the hospital,” he said. On a query, he said no armed men stormed in the hospital for creating law and order situation.