50 ambulance halts, CRPF orders probe

Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, April 17

Amid mounting anger against the biweekly ban on civilian traffic on the national highway, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has ordered a probe into the incident involving the death of a cancer patient whose ambulance was repeatedly stopped during the convoy movement last week.

Despite orders to allow movement of ambulances during the ban, the driver of the vehicle carrying the patient to Doda after his discharge from a Srinagar hospital last Wednesday was stopped around 50 times on April 10, including a 30-minute halt at Lower Munda.

Abdul Qayoom Banday of Doda was stopped on the Srinagar-Jammu NH near Lower Munda in Qazigund area on April 10 for about 30 minutes by CRPF men.

Ambulance driver Javed Ahmad said the patient died near Batote. “Before that, our ambulance was stopped around 50 times between Srinagar and Doda.”

This is the first casualty due to the biweekly ban on civilian traffic on the 270-km Baramulla-Srinagar-Udhampur highway imposed on April 3. “A high-level inquiry has been ordered,” the CRPF said, expressing “anguish” over the demise of the  patient after a video of the ambulance being stopped surfaced on the social media.

The force said: “Strict instructions are in place to enable speedy passage of ambulances and ailing civilians.”