A doctor working at the coronavirus isolation ward of Peshawar's Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) was beaten up by a group of people, the Young Doctors Association (YDA) said.

Dr Sanaullah Afridi, who was the assigned the duty of taking swabs of patients, said he had gone to the isolation ward to attend a call. While returning, he said some people started beating him up and called him names; they also broke his glasses and punched him in the face.

While expressing concern over the incident, the YDA demanded adequate security for medical staff and warned of a strike in case police failed to curb such attacks.

The HMC administration took serious notice of the incident and announced that in the future, any person who behaves aggressively with hospital staff will be arrested and legal action will be taken against them.