Doctors at the super special hospital Srinagar Tuesday staged a protest against the alleged manhandling and lodgment of senior interventional cardiologist Dr Syed Maqbool at the police station Zadibal and demanded action against the erring police officer.The protesting doctors urged the administration and police to ensure smooth passage of medicos and para medics who are risking their lives to treat Covid and other emergency patients.On Monday, news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), carried an exclusive report how Dr Maqbool was stopped hear Hawal area of Srinagar on Saturday when he was on call, by the police men who allegedly thrashed him after he was lodged at Zadibal police station by the Station House Officer (SHO), who snatched his phone and threatened him that he will strip him naked.The police top brass took serious note of the incident. First, SSP Srinagar Dr Haseeb Muhgal directed the SP Hazratbal to probe the incident and then IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar ordered an impartial probe stating that doctors and police were jointly fighting the pandemic.Today, scores of doctors at the super specialty hospital Srinagar staged a “token protest” in the premises of the hospital against the alleged police highhandedness.
Speaking to the KNO exclusively, Dr Maqbool, who is an award winning interventional cardiologist, said that the doctors have no personal grudge against the police but of late it has been seen that police is blocking the safe passage of doctors and para medics who are on way to their respective hospitals. “We are frontline warriors fighting the Covid and treating Covid patients by risking our lives.Our first priority is to save the patient be that Covid infected or any other emergency case and for that we have to reach the hospital especially when we are on a call,” he said.Dr Maqbool said that not just he was ill treated by the police his another colleague Dr Shabir, a Urologist, also met the same treatment at Eidgah area of Srinagar and that he was later left with a “broken finger.”“Our humble request to the police and the administration is that we shouldn’t be stopped on road while on way to our hospitals. We are working to save the humanity, so police shouldn’t create hurdles for us when we are on way hospitals and we should be treated with honour and dignity on roads,” Dr Maqbool said.Many other protesting doctors were carrying pla-cards in hands displaying slogans—“respect us, we are fighting Covid, saving humans.” Meanwhile, Private Diagnostic Centres Association (PDCA) president Umar Dhar also condemned the alleged assaults on the doctors and para medics staff, saying that doctors, para medics and private staff of Diagnostic Centers are serving the humanity in challenging times.“We urge police to facilitate the medical staff be that government or private on roads rather than harassing them,” he said, referring to the alleged misbehavior of police with the owner of City Clinical Laboratory Shuja Ahmed by the cops at Zadibal area of the city—(KNO)