LAHORE, DEC   (DNA) – Day after hundreds of fully-suited lawyers stormed a cardiac hospital in Lahore which left at least three patients dead, Rangers has been deputed at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) to control law and order situation.

On Dec 11, Punjab Home Department had approved the deployment of Rangers at key locations of the province including the PIC to maintain the law and order situation of Lahore.

The para-military force has taken the charge on the buildings and started performing their duty. It is pertinent here to mention that at least three heart patients died on Wednesday after hundreds of lawyers stormed a Pakistani cardiac hospital and attacked doctors.

Three patients including an elderly woman died after doctors failed to provide them timely treatment and remained engaged in averting the assault,  Punjab provincial health minister Yasmeen Rashid said at a press conference in Lahore.

A group of hundreds of lawyers, who had ongoing issues with the doctors of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, stormed the hospital, vandalising property and damaging dozens of vehicles of visitors and setting ablaze a police van, Rashid said.

According to police, the lawyers started punching and kicking some doctors at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and beating them with sticks. The mob damaged hospital equipment and prompted the families of some patients to move them to other hospitals.

Authorities said tension had been brewing between the city s lawyers and medics since last month, when one Lahore lawyer complained that doctors mistreated him when he took an ailing relative to the hospital. It was unclear what the alleged mistreatment involved.

The incident yesterday was allegedly triggered by video clips some doctors had made ridiculing the lawyers. Punjab information minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan who arrived at the hospital to mediate was also thrashed by angry lawyers.

This was kind of a high-handedness which none of civilised societies can tolerate,  provincial law minister Raja Basharat said. Prime Minister Imran Khan, who ordered an inquiry into the incident, directed Punjab provincial government to take stern action against all those involved in the attack.

Several lawyers have been identified from the television footage and the government will deal with all those involved in the attack with an iron hand,  Basharat said. = DNA