70-yr-old dies as J&K cops hold back ambulance

A 70-year-old critically ill patient of remote north Kashmir village died after traffic police accompaying the mobile magistrate halted the ambulance for half an hour for using the siren and blue light on its way to Srinagar hospital near Seelu in Sopore.

Abdul Rehman Dar was admitted in the government district hospital Handwara after he suffered massive heart attack on Tuesday. The doctors after examining him referred the patient to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar for further treatment. However, when the ambulance reached near Seelu village it switched on the blue light and started blowing siren to signal emergency so that the road is cleared up.

“We left Handwara at 11.50am and when we reached near Seelu there was a traffic jam. I started blowing siren. However, the traffic cops stopped the ambulance and asked me to show the documents. I pleaded that I will show once I drop the patient at SKIMS but to no avail,” said Fayaz Ahmad, an ambulance driver at Government District Hospital Handwara.

Fayaz said the cops later uprooted the siren and blue light and asked him to roll over the tyre over it before allowing him to leave for the hospital. “I lost 32 minutes at Seelu. Then I rushed to the hospital where the patient was admitted. I later got a call from the attendant that the patient has died,” he said.