Kashmir hospital seeks action against CRPF personnel

It is alleged that security personnel have manhandled medical staff

Kashmir’s premiere hospital Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS), treating the majority of those injured in the ongoing unrest, on Thursday urged the government to rein in CRPF personnel allegedly involved in manhandling of medical staff in Srinagar.

In a letter addressed to Srinagar’s District Development Commissioner (DDC), Qaiser Ahmad Koul, Principal of the Government Medical College (GMC) that runs the SMHS hospital, sought investigation into the “thrashing” of a medical employee at the Nawa Bazaar area on Wednesday. “An employee, Muhammad Hanief Khan, was beaten up by CRPF personnel at 10 a.m. when he was on the way to attend his duties,” Dr. Koul said in the letter.

Seeking investigation into the incident, the GMC has called for “appropriate action against the personnel so that the hospital staff are not harassed while performing professional duties.”

Doctors’ Association Kashmir president Nisar-ul-Hassan also accused the security personnel of attacking medical personnel.

“A team of the SKIMS hospital staff was attacked by the security forces at Beehama while it was returning after providing life-saving medical care recently. Even the women staff were humiliated and harassed. Two ambulances were damaged in Chadoora hospital. Such acts of intimidation against the medical staff are shocking,” said Dr. Hassan.

Residents’ charge

There are allegations of CRPF excesses in Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and Srinagar districts. Residents told The Hindu that the CRPF personnel had damaged window panes of houses. A viral online video shot at an undisclosed location shows CRPF personnel damaging parked vehicles.

However, CRPF spokesman Bhavesk Kumar denied the allegations. “All these allegations are baseless. No incident of thrashing a medical employee has taken place. There are clear instructions to allow movement of doctors and the staff during the curfew. Why would we stop ambulances or the medical staff?”

Rejecting allegations of damaging ambulances, Mr. Kumar said there were instances when the ambulances were not carrying any patient. “We do know who were travelling in the ambulances. Also, no video of CRPF damaging the public property has been received yet. We would like to look into it,” said Mr. Kumar.

In another development, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, on Thursday directed the police to register an FIR against a police officer accused of killing a civilian.