Agitating doctors write to President Murmu, PM Modi over RG Kar impasse
Kolkata (PTI): Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal have written to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting their intervention in the RG Kar hospital impasse.
Copies of the four-page letter written by the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front were also sent to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
A post-graduate trainee was raped and murdered in state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Junior doctors have been on a 'cease work' since then.
"We humbly place the issues before your esteemed excellency, as the head of state, so that our unfortunate colleague who has been the victim of the most despicable crime shall receive justice, and so that we, the healthcare professionals under the West Bengal Health department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension.
"Your intervention in these trying times will act as a beacon of light to us all, showing us the way ahead out of the darkness that surrounds us," they wrote.
One of the agitating doctors, Aniket Mahato, told PTI that the letter was drafted earlier this month and sent on Thursday night.
“In the light of these extremely unfortunate events, the head of the institute in question, along with the state police and certain state government officials had allegedly mishandled the entire forensic and legal proceedings with little regard for either the sanctity of the crime scene that was mobbed by several people of infamous repute within the West Bengal medical fraternity, or for the victim's parents…” the letter said.
In view of these circumstances, the sense of “deep mistrust and fear that we feel towards the authorities remain unallayed so far, and we desperately implore that these noxious elements within the health system be weeded out to assure us of a truly safe workplace”, it said.
“In this turbid atmosphere of fear, distrust and hopelessness”, the junior doctors in West Bengal have been “forced” to avoid working within the hospital premises and instead, have taken alternative modes to discharge the duty of providing health care services to citizenss, it added.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
