Amid the rising Covid cases in Pakistan, where health workers are struggling to contain the surge of patients in overflowing hospitals, a police case has been registered against two nurses of the District Headquarters Hospital in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad on the charge of committing blasphemy, according to a report in Dawn.

Scores of hospital employees staged a protest demonstration on Friday against the two nurses alleging that both committed blasphemy by removing a sticker with a sacred Islamic inscription from a cupboard.

Some unruly agitators attacked the police van parked inside the hospital to get custody of one of the nurses, but the police locked her inside the van to keep her safe from the fundamentalist protesters, the report said.

A police officer said it had been reported that two nurses allegedly committed blasphemy on Thursday by removing a "sacred" sticker in a ward where psychiatric patients are being treated.

Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Mohammad Ali submitted an application to the Civil Lines police claiming that the allegation of blasphemy had been proved by the hospital committee. He said the head nurse - whose religious affiliation was not disclosed - had taken the removed sticker into her custody and she apprised him of the issue on Friday.

The hospital administration called police who immediately took the nurse into protective custody so that she could be moved to a safer place. Scores of people tried to get hold of her but police kept her inside the van

Among the protesters were clerics who demanded action against the prime suspect.