Police highhandedness at Srinagar’s premier hospital sparked shutdown and protests by students and doctors.Reports said that Doctors stayed away from work and at Government Medical College Srinagar here on Wednesday against the thrashing of an on-duty doctor by the police.The thrashing incident according to protesting doctors occurred on Tuesday evening. The doctors and post graduate students who staged a protest alleged that a police man manhandled and thrashed a doctor while he was on duty at Medical Intensive Care Unit of the SMHS Hospital.“His (policeman’s) mother is admitted at the hospital. She is morbidly sick and when he came to see her, he ruthlessly beat up Ovais Wani, a third year post graduate student, who was on duty at the time of the attack,” a group of protesting doctors said.Wani, they said, was seriously injured in the attack. He is reportedly undergoing treatment at Triage, a high dependency ward of the hospital.The protesters demanded action against the erring policeman. “The irony is that police is refusing to lodge an FIR against the erring policeman who behaved like goon. Instead of initiating action against that SHO and his guards, police is threatening the resident doctors,” the protesting doctors said adding that OPD remained closed whole day and if action is not being initiated against the erring police man , they will hit to roads.The protesting doctors identified the erring policeman as Muhammad Ishaq. “Earlier he (Policeman) was the SHO at Karan Nagar police station and now we don’t know where he has been posted. The height of brutality is that SHO and his guards in unison pounced upon the doctors and beat him to pulp,” they said.Reports said that police have assured hospital administration of speedy investigation into the matter.(CNS)