HYDERABAD, June 15: The out-patient department (OPD) of the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH), which serves as the Hyderabad Civil Hospital, was closed for the third consecutive day on Saturday as a group of employees boycotted work and staged a two-hour-long sit-in outside the medical superintendent’s office against an armed attack on one of their colleagues.

However, operating theatres and casualty wards kept working as per routine. Moreover, though the OPD remained shut for the third consecutive day, a case for the attack on dispenser Zulfiqar Jatoi was still not registered at the police station concerned, said Pinyari SHO Wahid Bux Leghari while speaking to Dawn.

Mr Jatoi had been on his way to the hospital on Thursday morning when he was intercepted and fired at in the Lalu Lashari area, within the remit of the Pinyari police station. He sustained a bullet wound in the thigh and was admitted to intensive care unit of the hospital from where he was referred to the Liaquat National Hospital in Karachi.

At the hospital, a large number of people were seen sitting and waiting outside the OPD, second largest facility in the province after Karachi, catering to a large number of patients coming from rural Sindh districts including Matiari, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Dadu and Badin.

Meanwhile, protesting employees under the aegis of the All Sindh Peoples Paramedical Staff Welfare Association staged a sit-in in front of the office of LUH medical superintendent Dr Kazim Raza Shah from 11am to 1pm and shouted slogans against him, alleging that he had been involved in Thursday’s armed attack on dispenser Zulfqar Jatoi, who is also an office-bearer of the association.

They alleged that Mr Shah was also involved in corruption and called for his removal, besides calling for the arrest of attackers. The employees also demanded a probe by the government and law-enforcement agencies and said that the protest would continue till their demands were met. Meanwhile, LUH medical superintendent Dr Shah categorically rejected the allegations of corruption against him. He said that dispenser Jatoi, who was also in charge of procuring medicines and former head of bulk store Qadir Rajput had been involved in corruption.