The government doctors in Himachal Pradesh on June 19 continued with the two-hour 'pen down' strike over the failure to arrest an accused involved in assaulting and abusing a female doctor.

The woman doctor was allegedly assaulted by the accused in an inebriated state at a primary health centre in Seraj which falls under Chief Minister's constituency. The doctors in Mandi district threatened to go on an indefinite strike if action was not taken against the guilty, who is yet to be identified.

Expressing solidarity, doctors at Zonal Hospital in Dharamsala joined the 'pen down' strike, hampering the health services. Meanwhile, the government has constituted a Special Investigating Team to probe the incident. State Health Minister Vipin Parmar, who has sought a report on the incident, directed his department not to post woman doctors alone in remote public prime health centres at night. "If a woman doctor has to be deployed at night, a woman paramedic must accompany her," he said.