Less than a month after tea estate workers lynched a 73-year-old doctor in eastern Assam’s Jorhat district, a mob assaulted a doctor and vandalised a government hospital in western Assam’s Goalpara district late Wednesday evening.
The Assam Medical Service Association (AMSA) condemned the incident and lodged an FIR with the police in Dudhnoi, about 110 km west of Guwahati. The police said no arrest has been made so far.
According to a nurse, three people injured in a road accident were brought to the hospital. The injured included a teenage girl.
A doctor on duty declared one of the injured as having been brought dead, but some people who had gathered disagreed. They began vandalising the hospital before taking on Apurba Boro, the doctor.
“I checked the patient and found him dead on arrival. But the people started pushing and shoving me while others started smashing the hospital property,” Dr. Boro said, adding that the police rescued him and the other staff before the mob could do more damage.
AMSA president Paresh Kalita said the incident should not have happened when the doctor certified the accident victim as dead on arrival. “Such attacks are getting frequent and need to be campaigned against,” he said.
On August 31, septuagenarian doctor Deben Dutta was lynched by tea plantation workers after a youth of Teok Tea Estate died. At least seven doctors employed in various tea estates resigned after the incident, citing insecurity.
