Shabir Khan resigned as Health Minister yesterday
Doctors from various government hospitals in Kashmir are on a day-long strike today to demand that former Health Minister Shabir Khan who was forced to resign yesterday after he was booked in a case of alleged sexual assault be arrested immediately. All emergency services, however, have been exempted from the strike.
Mr Khan is a Congress legislator from Rajouri. The complaint against him has been filed by a woman doctor. The police have summoned him for questioning today but so far he has evaded police. Sources say police teams visited Mr Khan's house in Rajouri and Jammu but could not met the former minister.
Police sources say in case he doesn't turn up today, they will obtain arrest warrant from magistrate against Mr Khan. Yesterday, The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had declined to entertain his bail plea.
The woman has said in her complaint that over a week ago, she received repeated calls from Mr Khan's staff and was told that the minister wanted to know what announcements Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad made during his visit to the hospital where she works. Despite her requests that Mr Khan should obtain the information from senior officials, the doctor alleged, she was compelled to report to his office on January 28.
When the minister came to meet her, she said, he acted like a "sexual predator" and made "provocative advances - both verbal and physical".
"We can't continue work unless he is arrested and severest possible punishment is given. If he is not arrested and not sacked we will be on roads'' said Dr Nisarul Hassan, President of the Doctors Association Kashmir.
Mr Khan was forced to resign after his party asked him to step down in the wake of the allegations against him. He has been booked under non-bailable sections.