SRINAGAR: “My mother developed stomach pain on August 19. I had to bring her to the SMHS hospital in Srinagar. Since then I don’t have any contact with my family in Kupwara,” said Javed Ahmad a resident of Tangdhar. He said due to the communication blockade, he has not been able to contact his wife and minor child.
He said the day he left for Srinagar, there was shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops in Tangdhar sector.
“I don’t know how my family will be coping in my absence,” said Javed. Due to continued communication blockade, patients admitted in hospitals and their attendants are facing a tough time in communicating with their families.
A patient Mohammad Rafiq Baba from Beerwah area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district is suffering from a kidney ailment. He was admitted at SMHS hospital in Srinagar on June 21.
Baba’s son Aijaz, who is attending to him, said since August 5, when restrictions and communication blockade was imposed, he has not been able to communicate with his family.
“This is the worst communication blockade. Our lives are hell,” said Aijaz.
Mohammad Iqbal whose wife Hajira, a cancer patient, is undergoing treatment in Radiology Department of SMHS hospital, said he and his brother are attending to his ailing wife at the hospital for a fortnight now. “I have three children at home. I have no information about them,” said Iqbal, a farmer by profession and hailing from D K Marg area of Damhal Hanjipora area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
The continued blockade is also causing grave hardships to patients and their families as people are unable to call ambulances to ferry patients to hospitals.
Haleema, a resident of Surasyaar in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, said her newborn child suffered a throat infection and she could not call an ambulance to shift the baby to G B Pant Children Hospital in Srinagar.
Posters on launching stir
Twenty days after scrapping of Article 370 by central government, alleged Hurriyat Conference posters have come up at many places in the Valley asking people to launch civil disobedience and calling for a march to Hyderpora on August 28.
The alleged posters of Hurriyat Conference, with the name of Syed Ali Geelani, have come up at many places in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley.
The posters asked people not to pay any taxes. It could not be verified whether the posters were genuine or fake. The posters ask people not to cooperate with any government department.