Five health workers were injured on 25 January 2017 when police lathi-charged them during a demonstration outside the Parsa District Public Health Office (DPHO) in Birgunj. The health assistants were protesting at the DPHO’s refusal to implement the government’s decision to promote health assistants above a certain grade to the post of chief of health posts. They had been demonstrating for 25 days.
A meeting had been held in presence of Mohammad Daud, director at the Primary Health Care Revitalisation Division under the Department of Health Services, and the DPHO Chief Raj Kishor Pandit had assured the protestors their demands would be addressed that day. However, the police went ahead with what was described as a brutal attack on the protestors, leaving five of them requiring hospital treatment.