SRINAGAR: On the day home minister Rajnath Singh gave away the cold statistics of injuries in this month’s violent protests across the valley, constable Mudasir Ahmed fell to his wounds, the second cop to die in street conflicts. Around 2,228 policemen and more than 1,100 CRPF personnel have been injured along with 2,259 civilians in the clashes, Singh said, since Burhan Wani’s encounter death on July 8.
But, while civilian death-and-injury stories seen the light of day, the account of wounded soldiers remains largely undocumented. J&K police and CRPF personnel are as grievously injured as stone pelting protesters, but the law and order agencies remain so dehumanised by the politics of the Kashmir conflict that it has been difficult for the administration to get their wounded treated in civil hospitals in the valley.
“In a few cases of emergency, we took our injured boys on stretchers to wellknown civil hospitals, but mobs chased them away,” a senior police officer told TOI. “Inside hospitals, there was such fury that we had to evacuate our wounded personnel and move them to the Army hospital,” he said.
Most police personnel were treated and sent back to duty given the volatile situation, but the critically injured 12 men from CRPF and eight from the police were moved to Army’s 92 Base hospital, known for its exceptionally high rate of recovery. Of them, nine were wounded by stones and 11 by grenade splinters, Brigadier M S Tevatia, commandant of the base hospital said.
One of the injured J&K police constables, who received splinter injuries in his chest, abdomen and brain, still remains critical. The bone flap in his skull was opened to remove the splinter but to no avail.
An injured Marathi constable, who received splinter injuries in his abdomen, recounted how someone among the stone-pelters at Nowhatta lobbed a grenade at the dozen-odd paramilitary men.
“We’re used to stone pelting mobs who come out on streets almost every Friday. We took the stones and grenade splinters but did not fire back. We always exercise restraint because we don’t wish to fire at young boys,” a Kerala constable said, adding, “But I got scared by the mob that followed me in the hospital.”
Such is the outrage against the forces that even the Army hospital at Drugmulla in north Kashmir was targeted by stone-pelters, a video released by the Northern Command showed. Ironically, the Army hospital treats more civilian population than Army personnel. Last year, it gave free treatment to more than 10,000 civilians. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Unmapped-story-of-JKs-wounded-cops/articleshowprint/53389102.cms?null
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