Can you believe it, every wounded youth that arrives in SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS) in Srinagar is Hizb commander Burhan Wani, at least on the records. With the fear of being implicated in cases of stone pelting, arson and other types of violence, injured youth who are being brought to the hospital for treatment use the name of Burhan Wani for themselves.
“Every injured youth identifies himself as Burhan Wani. Go and check the tickets provided by the hospital authorities to these injured youth, you will find only one name – Burhan Wani,” a medical employee told news agency CNS.
Another employee said that some people the other day argued with a doctor after he tried to enquire a youth’s name and parentage. “The injured youth who identified himself as Burhan Wani was asked to show his identity card. Some people lost cool directing the doctor to concentrate on his treatment not on his address and name,” said the employee.
According to hospital sources most of the time groups of youth bring injured in the hospital. These youth register their name as Burhan Wani. “They do it to conceal the identification of the injured as they fear the policemen in civvies might become source of trouble for them.”
A lower rung employee informed that due to presence of civilians in large number in and around the hospital, the men working for different agencies and departments including police rarely approach the medical staff for the information about the injured. “The policemen in plain clothes earlier used to roam freely here but they feel scared now and are not found anywhere in the hospital,” he said.
A doctor on condition of anonymity said that even though they had been directed by authorities not to share any information about the injured with anyone, but little did authorities know that wounded youth neither reveal their true identity nor they prefer to stay in the hospital when they are able to move. “Even a wounded youth the other day didn’t allow us to remove pellets from his body. He left the hospital without proper treatment,” he said.
Pertinently, the unrest in Kashmir has claimed 75 lives of civilians and more than 11,000 people have suffered injuries in security forces’ action. Hospitals across Kashmir including SKIMS receive wounded people on daily basis. CNS
