The 32-year-old has been an ambulance driver in the state health department since 2009 and is the only driver posted in the healthcare facility located in his village. Express photo The 32-year-old has been an ambulance driver in the state health department since 2009 and is the only driver posted in the healthcare facility located in his village. Express photo

On Thursday evening, ambulance driver Ghulam Mohammad Sofi had to drop two emergency patients who were in need of immediate medical attention in two different Srinagar hospitals but just half an hour later he himself was being operated upon in a city health centre after a CRPF personnel ‘directly’ fired a full cartridge of pellets on him.

Sofi had traveled 28 kilometers – crisscrossing the roads barricaded by concertina wires and blockades installed by armed forces enforcing the curfew, from Public Health Centre Wussan in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district to take a child suffering from acute diarrhea to a children hospital in Srinagar and another patient suffering from fracture to Bones and Joints (B&J) hospital. There were three attendants with the two patients in the ambulance.

“When I reached Safa Kadal in Srinagar, a CRPF man directly shot at me through the window of my seat and the glass was shattered. My right arm was profusely bleeding because of the pellets and the glass pieces also hit my left arm,” Sofi told the Indian Express. “I continued to drive with my left hand to reach to the safety.”

He continued to drive for about two kilometers, despite having more than 300 pellets in his right arm to reach the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital where he was given the initial treatment and later was referred to the B&J hospital. “My vehicle had a moving siren and an ‘ambulance’ written in big letters but still the CRPF man fired at me. I was just doing my job,” Sofi said.

The 32-year-old has been an ambulance driver in the state health department since 2009 and is the only driver posted in the healthcare facility located in his village. The father of two children – a nursery and second grade student, Sofi is the only breadwinner of his family of five that also includes his wife and aged mother.

“I have a 24 hours job and can be called anytime to ferry patients for specialized treatment because i live just outside the PHC. But I do not think we can work under these conditions when you are made target by forces for just saving people’s lives,” he said.

Sofi underwent an emergency surgery on Thursday night in B&J hospital and doctors are yet to ascertain whether to remove the pellets from his arm. “We have to see whether the pellets have affected the blood vessels or not. We can only remove them if we are sure that further procedures will not cause more harm to the patient,” a doctor in the hospital said.

According to the CRPF, the personnel who fired on the driver has been suspended. “The action was unwarranted,” a CRPF spokesperson has said.

Admitted in a special ward in the hospital, Sofi’s left arm is plastered and tied to a blood tube holder. His another arm also remains bandaged because of the injuries caused by the broken glass pieces and some pellets inside it. “I get depressed when I look at my arm. I do not know whether I can bend my arm in future.”

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.

© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd