June 05, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428

LAKKI MARWAT, June 4: The Lakki Marwat and Serai Naurang chapters of the Chemists and Druggists Association in collaboration with the Doctors’ Action Committee on Monday observed a token strike against the government’s failure to recover three kidnapped officials of the health department.

The owners of medical stores in Serai Naurang town observed a shutter-down strike for three hours. In Lakki Marwat, chemists closed their shops for one and a half hours to express solidarity with the medical community and to pressure government functionaries for accelerating their efforts to secure the safe release of the kidnapped officials.

Doctors in the city, including those who worked for the district headquarter hospitals, went on strike and did not attend to patients for one and a half hours.

The chairman of the action committee, Dr Abdul Razzaq, and the general secretary of the Naurang chapter of the druggists association, Nadim Khattak, said the failure on the part of the authorities to ensure the safe release of kidnapped officials had served to heighten concerns among the medical community.

They said they would be compelled to expand the sphere of their protests to the other parts of the province if the missing individuals were not recovered soon.

They called upon the law-enforcement agencies to accelerate their efforts for the recovery of the missing officials.

Three doctors were kidnapped on May 26 near Bakhmal Ahmadzai (Tajori) while they were proceeding towards their offices.