KARACHI, May 23: Getting no response from the government, the aggrieved students of the Sindh Medical College on Friday went on what they claimed a till-death hunger strike.

The students, whose admissions have been disputed by the college authorities after a lapse of three to five years, had warned the government on Wednesday at a press conference that if their demands were not met within 48 hours they would stage a hunger strike.

About 60 students and their parents, including 15 females, started their protest by sitting on one of the footpaths near the Karachi Press Club around 4pm.

The police party, already in the area on some VIP duties, surrounded the students, but students and their parents could not be prevented from staging the hunger strike.

Once again the affected students reiterated that their admissions be regularized and the MBBS examinations already completed by the university be rescheduled for them.

The students placed a new demand for removal of the college principal and other staff at the SMC who, according to them, were equally responsible for the crime, if any.

The students told journalists and other visitors that they had been suffering serious mental torture for last four months, but the provincial health department and the college authorities were only complicating the issue.

“We continued our education at the SMC for three to five years without any interruption and achieved all academic qualifications. The university issued us enrolment cards, admit cards and conducted our examinations repeatedly for different years and also issued us marks-sheets. Then all of a sudden the “corrupt college administration’ declared that our admissions were bogus and illegal”, said the students.

Over 100 MBBS students of the SMC were debarred from appearing in different professional examinations by the college authorities on the ground that they had failed to satisfy them in regard to their admissions, which were doubted as illegal.

The government has also suspended some of the college staff alleged to be involved in ‘illegal admissions.’

Students sitting outside the Press Club said that the government was indifferent to their problems. “They are trying to reduce us to Intermediate students, despite the fact that most of us have carried out the clinical and theory exercises in medical education. It is utter injustice and an attempt to force us to live a life of criminals,” he said.

“We are here to protest against the government officials’ apathy and will observe the hunger strike till the time our demands are met,” said a female student.

In the meantime, leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, visited the protesting students outside the Karachi press Club. After listening to the students, he said the students deserved sympathy.

“I would try to contact the health advisor and the health secretary so that a meeting between the government and the students is held and the matter is resolved soon,” he said.