Covid-19: Pakistani police flog doctors during protest over lack of PPE

Pakistani doctors have complained about the maltreatment received from the country’s policemen who have been allegedly beating and humiliating them in the course of the fight against coronavirus.

A doctor who joined the protest against lack of personal protective equipment said he had been severely beaten and humiliated by the police.

Amanullah, speaking from a police station where he was being held in Quetta said, “In the beginning, I thought how could police use violence against the frontline fighters of Covd-19 when some days ago the same fighters had saluted us for leading during the pandemic.”

“But we were wrong. Sticks and butts of AK-47 rifles rained down on us. We were dragged through the street and thrown into trucks,” he added.

Amanullah and 60 other doctors were detained overnight in the police station and released on Tuesday.

While explaining the reason for the protest, Amanullah said, “There is a lot of psychological distress and trauma, as we have no idea how many patients we have infected or will be infecting. That’s why we decided to march and demand PPE not for ourselves, but to save the lives of many.”

Another doctor, Younas Elahi, working in another hospital in Quetta said working in the hospitals without the necessary PPE is akin to suicide.

“Doctors are killing themselves in hospitals by treating patients without PPE. They have no safe equipment. On the other hand, the government is unleashing violence against doctors,” he said

“We are so vulnerable and it makes me cry when I see patients begging for help when doctors can’t even touch them. The health facilities here are deplorable…I think this pandemic here is untreatable in Baluchistan,” he added.