KARACHI, March 22: In a joint statement, about sixty teachers of the University of Karachi condemned the target killings of doctors and held that it was a result of religious intolerance.

A paper signed by Dr Riaz Ahmed, Navin Haider, Prof Abid Azhar and other teachers expressed sympathy with the family members of the deceased doctors.

Classifying the killing of doctors as sectarian, they observed that the rise in sectarianism had led to sectarian killings.

The teachers said the government had failed to arrest the killers or to rein in on sectarianism. They demanded that the killers should be identified and message of tolerance be propagated.

PMDA STRIKE: A partial strike was observed in all major hospitals here on Friday following the strike call given by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Association (PMDA) to protest against the killing of doctors in the city, adds PPI.

According to PMDA president Dr Jawaid Agha, during the strike patients approaching the emergency wards were attended by duty doctors.

He said prominent among those hospitals and medical colleges where the strike was observed included Sindh Medical College, Dow Medical College, MOI Hospital, National Institute of Child Health, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Karachi Medical and Dental College and others.

He, however, criticized the dual standard of the PMA, saying that earlier it had announced to back the strike call and later because of unknown reasons withdrew the support.