Aligarh, Apr 24 (PTI) Patients wore a desperate look at Aligarh’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) Hospital as doctors embarked on a strike over a fight between two student groups.

On Tuesday night, a fight broke out on the AMU Athletics Grounds during the annual horse show.

What seemed initially like a minor scrap over seating arrangements, soon graduated into a full blown war, leading to a subsequent, more violent confrontation inside the hospital’s emergency centre where even gunshots rang out.

The aftermath of the violence has seen hundreds of patients turned away, as senior consultants struggle to manage the influx. The shutdown of emergency services, triggered by the junior doctors’ strike, has exacerbated the crisis.

JNMC Hospital Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Amja Rizvi told PTI that while a “skeletal service” of OPD services was being maintained for critical cases, “the hospital is unable to operate the Trauma Center for Emergency Services.” Rizvi said negotiations to end the strike are on with the doctors, who have refused to work citing lack of safety inside the hospital.

In the wake of the row the same night, police arrested five people, whose identities are yet to be ascertained.

An RDA spokesperson said doctors feel insecure due to the law and order situation and “poor” security arrangements. “Such incidents have now become very frequent and this time we want long term solutions.” The RDA is demanding trained security staff and modern security infrastructure systems.

They insist that all those involved in Tuesday night’s shooting be brought to book and that university officials guilty for the breach be held accountable. PTI COR CDN VN VN