Doctors' protest intensifies: 24-hour strike on Monday, 3.5 lakh medicos to join

New Delhi, June 14: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday called for nationwide strike protesting the attack on a doctor in Kolkata.

The top doctors' body has said that no essential medical services should be provided on 17 June and that non-violent protests will continue. "We want assurance for a law for the protection of doctors and hospitals.

On Monday, there will be a complete bandh if the demand is not met," the IMA said at a press conference.

"The doctors are asking for security and other minor things, not for the moon. It is doable. We won't back down," the IMA said at a press conference. 3.5 lakh doctors to participate.

The IMA had directed members of all its state branches to stage protests and wear black badges on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court has refused to pass any interim order on the strike by junior doctors at state-run hospitals in protest against the attack on two of their colleagues by family members of a patient.

Junior doctors in West Bengal are on strike since Tuesday demanding better security at workplace after two of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured at the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata allegedly by relatives of a patient who died at the hospital.

Emergency wards, outdoor facilities, pathological units of many state-run medical colleges and hospitals and a number of private medical facilities in the state have remained closed over the past three days in the wake of the protest.