“Rock on” movie actor actor Farhan Akhtar has urged people to let doctors do their jobs without fear. The actor and popular singer says that healthcare workers are in the firing line due to people’s misconceptions and misplaced rage.
Farhan shared the video of one of the doctors, who was the victim of an attack in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. The medical staff had visited the locality to test some people who were suspected attendees of Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic congregation in New Delhi. The gathering became a hotspot of COVID-19 cases in the country, with more than 400 cases.
"We'd been working on screening of contacts for the last 4 days. But what we saw yesterday we'd not seen earlier. Stones were thrown at us and were chased by a mob. We were whisked away by Dr. Hoods in a car. We sustained injuries but we have to do our job and will not be scared," says Dr Zakiya Sayed, a healthcare worker attacked in Indore city's Tatpatti Bakhal area on Thursday.
Several other Bollywood actors also joined the chorus in condemning the assault on doctors across the country. From legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan and veteran Rishi Kapoor to actress Raveena Tandon and lyricist Javed Akhtar.
In a similar incident in Madhya Pradesh, a doctor was attacked by the brother of a Covid-19 patient who died on 1 April. The brother, who was also being treated after testing positive for the virus, attacked the doctors and also broke a window at the hospital. In another incident, doctors at Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain hospital were quoted by media as saying that members of the Islamic society, Tablighi, spat on them and refused to get tested for the disease.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh state police lodged complaints against six Islamic scholars, members of Tablighi Jamat, who were being housed at a medical facility in Ghaziabad due to the coronavirus, for using sexist comments about the female nurses who were attending to them.