Beating Seniors: Seven doctors sent on 2-day remand

GUJRANWALA: A court on Saturday sent seven doctors, including the Gujranwala Young Doctors Association president, on a two-day physical remand over charges of beating up senior doctors and journalists. Civil Lines police presented seven doctors, including YDA Gujranwala president Kashif Bilal, Dr Tahir, Dr Waqas, Dr Kashif Bashir and Dr Abdullah Zia, before the court of judicial magistrate Muhammad Asif. Prosecutor Chaudhry Haq Nawaz and Hamaad Iftikhar Syed told the court that police had to retrieve firearms and rods used in the assault from the suspects. They said they required a seven-day physical remand. They said the medical certificates of 18 journalists who were beaten up by the doctors had also been submitted. He said the video playing on TV channels showing YDA representatives beating up senior doctors showed that doctors had also beaten journalistnal interests. YDA counsel Imran Haider Shah said the police had registered a baseless case against the doctors. He said the police had not been letting the doctors meet their families. The court directed the police to let the doctors meet their relatives and to take good care of them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2013.