RAWALPINDI: The nurses of the garrison city on Friday staged a protest on the premises of Benazir Bhutto Hospital against what they said brutal use of force by the Punjab Police against their counterparts in Lahore.

The protesters claimed that the baton charge and torture had left two nurses dead. The Lahore nurses have been protesting for the renewal of their services for the last many days.

When the news of the killing came, all the nurses of Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Holy Family Hospital, District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital stopped work and gathered at emergency department of Benazir Hospital.

They staged a peaceful demonstration to press the government for holding impartial inquiry into the incident and bringing the killers to book.

More than 50 nurses, carrying placards inscribed with their demands, were chanting slogans against the Punjab government and the police.

While talking to Dawn, Nurses representative Shamshad Nazir said that the nurses staged token protest and if the killers were not arrested then they would launch province-wide protest.

She said their protests did not affect the work in emergency wards and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as the nurses on duty in these wards were not invited to join the protest.

She said that the protest was only for an hour to record our protest and they would not want to create problems for the patients.

Gul Naz Jabeen and Huma Asif, nurses from Holy Family Hospital, said that working condition was already not good for the nurses and job insecurity forced the nurses in Lahore to protest.

They declined to buy the government’s claim that they had not sent police to disperse the peaceful protest of nurses.

“It is wrong because without the government consent, the police cannot take such action,” they said.

BBH Medical Superintendent Dr. Asif Qadir Mir told Dawn that the protest did not create problem for the patients as few nurses staged a protest.

He said special arrangements had been made for the care of the patients and the nurses had been requested to remain clam as the government would investigate the matter and listen to their problems.