BIRGUNJ, June 19: Local patients have been deprived of treatment at health facilities in Birgunj after doctors started protesting the recent arrest of their colleagues.

Due to the protest, all the services except emergency have remained close in Birgunj, Parsa since the last two days.

On Friday, a Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) team of Nepal Police in plain clothes arrested nine doctors from different hospitals of Birgunj. Kushraj Giri, Saroj Singh, Pannalal Patel, Arun Kumar Gupta, Dinesh Sah, Rahullah, Irshad Ahmad, Nimesh Raman Pal, and Ram Kumar Pradhan are among the nine arrested doctors. At the time of their arrest, police did not give any reason for their arrest and no arrest warrant was issued for the detention.

Condemning the "arbitrary" arrest of their colleagues, doctors in Birgunj have shut down the Out Patient Department (OPD) services in different hospitals including the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital, and National Medical College Teaching Hospital, Birgunj on Sunday for the second consecutive day.

Doctors organized a protest rally under the banner of Nepal Medical Association (NMA) in Birgunj, threatening to continue the shutdown of OPD services until the detained doctors are released.

Doctors and hospital proprietors have also submitted a memorandum to the home minister and health minister through Chief District Officer (CDO) Keshav Raj Ghimire. In the memorandum, the agitating doctors have demanded immediate release of the doctors, according to Dr Pramod Kumar Sharraf, vice president of NMA, Narayani Chapter.

 
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