From correspondents in Orissa, India, 03:33 PM IST

Government doctors in Orissa Monday threatened to resign en masse to protest the dismissal of three doctors, who had allegedly cut off the palms of five tribals while performing autopsies on their bodies.

'Around 3,000 government doctors will submit mass resignations to the government Monday in advance,' Madhusudan Mishra, president of the Orissa Medical Service Association (OMSA), told IANS.

'If the government does not withdraw the dismissal order, we will not join work from Nov 9,' he said.

The state government had last month dismissed Bibek Swain, an anaesthesiologist, Santanu Sahu, a surgeon and Anup Nath Sharma, an orthopaedic specialist, for allegedly cutting off the palms of five tribals while performing autopsies on their bodies. The five were killed in police firing during protests in the coastal district of Jajpur three years ago.

The doctors said they had done so following directions from administration and police officials to preserve the identity of those killed.

Of the 500 tribals protesting construction being undertaken by Tata Steel at the industrial complex in Kalinga Nagar, some 100 km from Bhubaneswar, at least 13 were killed during police firing Jan 2, 2006.

The incident had created a storm within and outside Orissa. Following pressure from various human right groups, the state government had suspended the three doctors the same year.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)