CHAKWAL, Oct 5: The ongoing strike by private and government doctors in protest against the arrest of one of their colleagues for allegedly showing negligence which resulted in the death of a minor girl entered its third day on Thursday.

However, the government doctors continued attending emergency patients.

Meanwhile, traders and residents held a rally against the attitude of the doctors. They marched on various roads, carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans.

The rally converted into a protest meeting at Tehsil Chowk where speakers, including Chaudhry Ahmad Khan, Shahid Abbasi, Qazi Ghulam Abbas and Chaudhry Munir Ahmad, demanded that the resignations tendered by government doctors should be accepted forthwith and military doctors be deployed at the emergency centres and hospitals of Chakwal.

Azhar Abbas, whose six-month-old baby boy Hamza Ali died due to alleged negligence of child specialist Dr Mohammad Amir, also spoke on the occasion.

In the meantime, DCO Babar Khan Nasir, in a meeting with the doctors, asked them to call their strike off in public interest. EDO Health Chakwal Dr Mohammad Iqbal said the district government had not received resignation from a single doctor. He said government doctors were performing their duties in emergency wards.

The DCO also conveyed the message of District Nazim Sardar Ghulam Abbas, asking the doctors to defend themselves at the forum of Supreme Court.

MAN KILLED: A motorcyclist was crushed to death at Chakwal- Rawalpindi road near Ashraf Town on Thursday. Haji Tariq Rehman, a resident of Behkari village, was on its way to Chakwal on his motorcycle when he was hit by a speeding Rawalpindi-bound (RPT- 3153) near Ashraf Town, resulting his instant death on the spot.