RAWALPINDI, Nov 25: Nurses in the three government hospitals here on Friday observed strike and staged a demonstration to protest police and traders’ brutality against their colleagues in Lahore on Thursday.

The police baton charged the nurses in Lahore when they were holding a protest demonstration against the health department for denying them the pay package announced by the chief minister. Later, traders also joined the police and pelted the nurses with eggs.

On the call of All Punjab Nursing Association, hundreds of nurses from District Headquarters, Benazir Bhutto and Holy Family hospitals, under the banner of Young Nurses Association, stopped attending patients and protested on the premises of their hospitals.

They chanted slogans against police, traders and the Punjab government. Later, the nurses gathered outside Benazir Bhutto Hospital and blocked the main road for three hours creating traffic jams.

The nurses were wearing black arm-bands and holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans for acceptance of their demands.

A heavy contingent of police reached the scene but they did not disturb the protesters.

Sobia Ahmed, a nurse from HFH, told this reporter that the chief minister had approved a Rs5.2 billion package for doctors and nurses but the health department was not paying the revised salaries to the latter.

Meanwhile, hundreds of patients admitted to the hospitals or visiting its OPDs suffered hardship owing to the absence of nurses. The nurses working in the emergency and intensive care units, however, remained on their duties.