Uttarakhand: Doctors Shot Dead, State Practitioners on Strike

Dehradun: The entire medical community of the State have declared a Strike, after a Pediatrician was brutally shot dead while attending to patients at Community Health Centre on 20^th April, 2016.

The incident goes back to yesterday, when Pediatrician Dr Sunil Kumar Singh was attending to a child patient, while being on OPD duty at Jashpur Government Hospital in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district. At this time, around 10.30 am in the morning, two motor cycle borne assailants, reported to be their mid 20s approached the Hospital. One of the assailants went inside and shot the doctor in the chest from point blank range.

With the gunshot, chaos broke at the hospital and it is reported that the assailants escaped taking advantage of the commotion. The staff of the hospital, rushed the injured doctor to a private hospital in Kashipur, but unfortunately, Dr Singh died on the way.

Additional superintendent of police, Kashipur, Kamlesh Upadhyay informed  TOI, "The initial findings hint at a personal rivalry but it is still early to arrive at any conclusion." The police official further said that the two sons of Dr Singh were in Delhi and his wife was at Gaya at the time of crime. "Therefore, with family members not in Jaspur, not many facts related to the doctor have yet come to the fore," the SP added.

Dr Singh,  who hails from Gaya district in Bihar, had been posted in the district for last 15 years. The doctor, along with his wife and two sons, resided in his allotted residence inside the CHC premises.

Following the incident, the entire hospital had been shut down. As the news of the incident travelled, doctors of the Kumaon district demanded immediate arrest of the culprits, and showed their agitation by remaining off duty from work. The solidarity has been shown by both government doctors and private doctors alike who have come out openly condemning the incident and demanding justice

Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS), an association of government doctors of Uttarakhand had declared that all government hospitals across the state will remain shut on Thursday, only emergency and post-mortem unit will be open. If the administration fails to catch the cuplits, doctors will even shut down the emergency as well. Similar reaction has come out from IMA Uttarakhand Branch, who are going to join the Statewide strike from tomorrow.

Speaking to Medical dialogues team, Dr DD Choudhary, General Secretary, IMA Uttarakhand Branch said," Since Today IMA branches in the kumaon ragion have been on strike, along with the government doctors. Given the president's rule in the state, we are going to meet the Governor tomorrow to demand justice for Dr Sunil Kumar Singh. If the culprits are not identified and caught at the earliest, all doctors across the state will go on a strike."