The hospital administration took to microblogging site X to inform that Dr. Sunil Rao’s employment had been terminated in view of the Islamophobic tweets he posted allegedly favouring Israel
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — An Indian doctor has been arrested in Bahrain and fired from Royal Hospital for posting “anti-Palestine” comments on social media.
The services of Dr. Sunil Rao, 50, a specialist in internal medicine at Royal Bahrain Hospital, were terminated immediately before his arrest on Thursday, media reports reaching here said on Friday.
The hospital administration took to microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) to inform that Dr. Rao’s employment has been terminated in view of the tweets he posted favouring Israel, which has been relentlessly bombarding Gaza for about two weeks now.
“IsraelFightsBack will do a scorched earth attack, plenty will be killed, displaced, Hamas will be destroyed (rightly so), then what? If I may ask? #Israel #Gaza #IsraelPalestineConflict. Occupy under military force? one of Dr. Rao’s posts reads.
A user of the micro-blogging site had flagged the tweets and asked authorities in Manama to take notice.
Soon after the hospital informed that Dr. Rao’s contract was terminated. “It has come to our attention that Dr. Sunil Rao who is working as a Specialist in Internal Medicine has posted tweets on social media that are offensive to our society,” the hospital’s statement read. “We would like to confirm that his tweets and ideology are personal and do not reflect the opinion and values of the hospital. This is a violation of our code of conduct and we have taken the necessary legal actions and his service has been terminated with immediate effect.”
Dr. Rao was arrested by the Anti-Cyber Crimes Directorate of the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security for violations of civil peace and social stability that could affect society’s security and safety.
Later, Dr. Rao issued an apology on social media, acknowledging the “insensitivity” of his statement.
“I would like to apologise about the statement that I posted on this platform. It was insensitive in the context of the current event. As a doctor all lives matter. I respect this country its people and its religion deeply as I have been here for past 10 years,” he said in the post.
The Royal Hospital Bahrain also deleted the profile of Dr. Rao from its website. According to Dr. Rao’s bio on X, he is an alumni of Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, and Kasturba Medical College in Mangaluru, Karnataka. Dr. Rao also possess an experience totalling 20 years.
