THIS refers to the rude behaviour and attitude of Larkana police with people who take the serious patients to the hospitals in emergency. While the Sindh government has allowed taking critically ill patients to hospitals in a lockdown, Larkana police do not allow this.

All the para-medical staff should be allowed to go hospitals to perform their duties too. However, recently when a gynaecologist was going to attend an emergency case in a hospital, an assistant sub-inspector of police stopped her to proceed. She was permitted to go to the hospital only when Larkana SSP intervened and asked the police officer on the duty to let her go.

Then in another case, a patient was being taken to a hospital when a police officer refused his family members to do so. Later, the patient was taken to the hospital on a pushcart.

In another incident, when a little child was being transported to a hospital from Dokri to a hospital in Larkana, police again stopped the father of the child and did not allow him to proceed to the hospital. As a result, the child died there. This is an absolutely inhuman way of dealing with the poor people who are already facing several issues.

In a separate case, an operation theatre technician, Jameel Ahmed, who travels daily from Dokri to Larkana, faces the same issue while reaching his hospital.

The Sindh chief minister has already announced that people who leave their homes in emergency must be allowed to go. I urge him to order Larkana police to stop harassing the poor people in emergency and let them travel freely in such an emergency situation.

Fawad Husain Samo
Larkana

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2020