SRINAGAR, India — Four days of deadly clashes between anti-India protesters and government troops have left hospitals in India’s portion of Kashmir overwhelmed, with hundreds of wounded patients pouring in, doctors said on Wednesday. The violence has left 32 dead and more than 1,400 injured.
One doctor at the region’s main government hospital said that staff had performed more eye surgeries in the last three days than they had in three years. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to talk to reporters.
The violence erupted over the weekend after government troops killed a top leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest rebel group fighting Indian rule in the troubled Himalayan region. The dead included one policeman. Hundreds of policemen have also been injured.
Troops used live ammunition and pellet guns to try and quell the angry, rock-throwing crowds that gathered across the region in defiance of a curfew imposed by Indian authorities.
At least 300 injured civilians, most of them wounded by bullets and pellets, have been admitted to Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, in the region’s main city of Srinagar.
The hospital struggled to treat hundreds of patients wounded, as medics warned that many could lose their eyesight from shotgun injuries.
Ambulances continued to deliver more victims to Srinagar’s Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS) where patients were forced to share beds.
An administrator said staff have been ordered not to speak to the press but wards were crammed with young boys and men, many of whom had suffered serious eye injuries caused by the firing of pellets by Indian troops.
A correspondent who toured the teeming wards saw two patients to a bed, as doctors worked non-stop.
“Doctors are working in operating theaters round-the-clock. We’ve operated on 90 for serious eye injuries since Saturday morning,” said a doctor in SMHS where many volunteers were helping to tend to the injured.
“Most of them have lost their eyesight in one eye. They are going to walk out of the hospital as one-eyed boys,” the doctor added.
One of the youngsters said he had been injured when paramilitary troops opened fire toward him and a group of his friends with pellet guns as they walked out of a mosque in Srinagar on Friday evening.
“I can’t see anything right now,” the boy said, declining to give his name as he wiped away tears that were dripping out of the sides of his bandaged eyes. — Agencies
