A protester hurls a stone at security personnel in Srinagar on Friday. (Source: AP) A protester hurls a stone at security personnel in Srinagar on Friday. (Source: AP)

A DAY after an ambulance driver was shot at by the CRPF at Safa Kadal area of the city, officials Friday asked district and sub-district hospitals to manage critical patients at rural health centres at night instead of taking the risk of moving them to Srinagar.

The decision has been taken to avoid confrontation with Army and CRPF personnel patrolling roads and highways at night.

Night curfew has been imposed stringently in the Valley, especially on the national highway, for the last two days.

On Thursday night, ambulance driver Ghulam Mohammad Sofi, 32, was ferrying two patients from Wussan village in central Kashmir to Srinagar when CRPF men fired pellets at him. Severely injured, Sofi took the patients to the nearby Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital.

Sofi himself was hospitalised subsequently. On Friday, Dr Manzoor Ahmad, Head of the Department, Orthopedics Bone and Joints Hospital, said, “He was fired at from close range and had taken hundreds of pellets. He is now stable (after undergoing surgery).”

The CRPF has initiated an inquiry and suspended a sub-inspector for firing pellets at Sofi.

Pointing out that ambulances are not attacked even during a war, the superintendent of a government hospital said, “It is dangerous for us to work under these circumstances. We have (now) decided to move ambulances only during the day — we can’t risk lives of our staff and patients.”

Director (Health), Kashmir, Saleem-ur-Rehman has taken up the issue with the government.

State Health Minister Bali Bhagat said the issue has been taken up at the highest level. “Action has been initiated against the CRPF person who opened fire,” he said. Bhagat said more than 130 ambulances of the health department have been damaged, and drivers manhandled, ever since protests began following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani. He said many ambulances were damaged by protesters as well.

Several doctors and paramedical staff on night duty said CRPF and police personnel are not entertaining even curfew passes issued by the district administration for the last three days, since night curfew was imposed. “It is risking our lives even if we are in ambulances,” an SMHS doctor said.

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