Representatives for the police and other security forces deny ever obstructing any doctor or hospital staff member from arriving at work.
Shahida Mir, the principal of the Government Medical College in Srinagar and head of five associated hospitals, placed one of them, known as SMHS Hospital, under a state of emergency during the first week of last month, meaning it would perform only emergency surgery because of the influx of trauma patients. She, too, complained that her doctors were delayed, harassed or turned back by security forces when trying to get to work.
“They put up such a stern face, the doctors get scared,” she said of the security forces, which still number in the hundreds of thousands in Kashmir after many arrived in the 1990s to fight an insurgency that has since been mostly vanquished.
Farooq Ganie, a surgical resident, confessed that for the past two-and-a-half months, he had resided on campus at the institute, too afraid even to try the commute home. On a recent Saturday, he dared try it.
“They stopped me, and I showed them my ID card,” he said of the security forces. “I was so scared, I thought they would beat me, but they let me go.”
Abdul Maajid, a psychiatrist who witnessed the protests in the emergency room, explained that the younger generation of Kashmiris, those responsible for many of the protests, are the products of an environment with “acute chronic stressors.”
“They have not seen normal life,” he said.
His own upbringing in the valley, before the insurgency of the 1990s, was relatively peaceful.
“I have seen what normal life means,” he said. “For the last 20 years, I have seen the kids around. They have not seen the playground. They have not seen the normal recreational activities you expect them to do at their age.”
In recent days, the situation at the hospitals has grown less urgent as the administration has adapted to the conditions, and casualty numbers dwindle, but tensions remain and the effects of the curfews have deepened.
Pharmacies are running low on many routine medications because of a transportation shutdown in the valley, according to residents. Many family members of hospital patients whose homes lie outside Srinagar are having trouble getting food, and are being helped by local people who have donated and organized meals for the month of Ramadan.
Then there is the fear shared by so many Kashmiris, but one that particularly affects the hospital’s nurses, who are not allowed to live on campus and must brave the commute daily.
“It’s terrible to come here,” said Shazia Mohi-u-Din, a nurse. “It is stressful every day. When you leave the house, you don’t know if you’re coming back.”
RSS