DAWN reported that the violence occurred after the hospital's administration refusal to hand over the patient's body to the family. The mob managed to take the patient's body outside the ward but it was brought back inside after Rangers personnel arrived at the scene.
The video of the attacked ward are also doing the rounds on social media, showing broken pieces of glass, furniture, and fans strewn on the floor. According to the hospital’s administration, 37 Covid-19 patients were being treated in the same ward.
“A 60-year-old man was brought to the hospital from the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Ojha campus in critical condition. He had pulmonary issues, fever and a cough and his attendants were counselled about his condition time and again. The attendants weren’t allowed to go upstairs where the patient was admitted. However, after he passed away, a huge crowd gathered outside the facility before bursting inside and ransacking the ward,” Executive Director JPMC Dr Seemin Jamali told the newspaper.
The doctor said that no one was injured in the incident, however, the mob broke the doors, glass windows, ceiling fans, tables, computers, and everything they could lay their hands on.
“When a Covid-19 patient dies, the hospital administration calls the district health officer, who arranges the ghusl (bathing of a body) and burial with Edhi staff. They bury the body in a far-off graveyard," explained Dr Jamali, suggesting that the authorities need to rethink this policy of not allowing the family to see the deceased. "They are someone's loved one. Give the family proper hazmat suits and let them wash the body and bury them.”
Meanwhile, Saddar Station House Office (SHO) Arshad Afridi said eight people have been detained following the incident. He said that an FIR had not been registered yet as police were talking to the hospital management about it.