KHAIRPUR: Office-bearers of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Khairpur chapter, doctors and paramedical staff participated in a protest rally on Tuesday against the kidnapping of a doctor working at the Kingri Taluka Hospital.

The rally emerged from the City Hospital Khairpur and protested in front of the of the local press club from where the protesters marched towards the office of the Khairpur deputy commissioner and staged a protest demonstration in front of it.

Meanwhile, doctors and paramedical staff of the Kingri Taluka Hospital have been observing a token strike for the past three days in protest against the kidnapping.

Talking to the media at the rally, Khairpur PMA president Dr Liaquat Ali Shah Jillani, general secretary Dr Aijaz Samo, Kingri taluka PMA president Dr Abdul Ahad Memon and others said that Dr Abdullah Memon had been kidnapped three days ago when he was on his way to Sukkur from Pir jo Goth. They said that Dr Memon’s car had been found abandoned near Gambat.

The protesters alleged that neither the police nor the district administration was cooperating, and so far they had not found a clue to the missing doctor’s whereabouts.

They office-bearers said that the family of the missing doctor and also the doctors’ fraternity was gravely concerned about the matter.

They said it would be hard for the doctors to perform their duties in such an insecure atmosphere.

The PMA office-bearers said that another doctor belonging to Hingorja, Dr Abdul Rehman Memon, was freed last week by the kidnappers themselves after 38 days while the district administration did not do anything about it.

The doctors said that till Dr Memon was recovered, five doctors would tender their resignations every day as a sign of protest.

The protesters chanted slogans in front of the deputy commissioner’s office and slammed the police for continuing to remain clueless about the whereabouts of the missing doctor. Later, Deputy Commissioner Munawwar Hussain Mithani invited a delegation of protesting doctors to his office for negotiations.

It was decided that a PMA delegation would meet the deputy commissioner and Khairpur SSP Usman Aijaz Bajwa together on Tuesday night and would decide the future course of action for the recovery of Dr Memon.

The doctors’ delegation would also meet the chief minister when he arrives in Khairpur after a day or two.