Bandipora, Oct 25: A hunger strike initiated by activists demanding essential healthcare facilities in the Gurez valley in north Kashmir’s Bandipora entered its fourth day on Sunday, with protesters issuing a five-point charter of demands and warning against administrative attempts to suppress their peaceful agitation.
Amid the ongoing protest, the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir issued an order on Saturday deploying two gynaecologists to the region.
To ensure services remain available at Block Gurez during the forthcoming winter season, Dr Sheikh Firdous from District Hospital Bandipora and Dr Nusrat Nabi from Sub-District Hospital Chadoora have been temporarily deployed to the Community Health Centre in Dawar with immediate effect.
Consequently, Dr Moseen Moneer has been deployed to District Hospital Bandipora.
Despite the interim government order, local youths have continued joining local activist Hamza Lone in the fast. The group stressed that their strike would not end until their core demands were met on the ground.
On Sunday, one protester alleged that authorities were employing tactics to wind up the protest, urging them to back down.
He warned that if the peaceful agitation for basic healthcare was stifled, the four youths currently on hunger strike could quickly turn into 400. He also accused officials of taking the public for a ride by misclassifying the Community Health Centre (CHC) Gurez as a Sub-District Hospital (SDH).
The protester demanded that the government acknowledge the facility’s true status as a CHC and enhance its infrastructure accordingly.
The protesters are demanding the immediate provision of 4×4 ambulances for Bagtore, Tulail and Dawar to ensure emergency services during harsh winter conditions.
They are also pressing for the appointment of a permanent gynaecologist and radiologist, alongside the immediate operationalisation of a blood bank and an operation theatre equipped for Caesarean sections and other emergencies.
Furthermore, the youths are demanding a thorough, impartial and time-bound investigation into the recent mother-and-son deaths to ensure accountability is fixed wherever negligence is established.
Gurez MLA Nazir Ahmad Gurezi on Saturday appealed to the youths to end their fast.
Addressing the maternal death that triggered the protests, Gurezi publicly criticised the local administration for lapses in emergency response, stating that the sub-divisional magistrate should have left his quarters, mobilised two doctors and rushed to the patient’s aid.
Gurezi noted that his own responsibility was to coordinate with the Border Roads Organisation to clear the snowbound road for evacuation, while managing the medical response fell entirely to the sub-divisional magistrate and block medical officer.
Questioning why the pregnant woman was not given a life-saving blood transfusion, he confirmed that a committee was investigating the negligence to identify the responsible parties.
Defending his record and the existing infrastructure, Gurezi asserted that facilities such as blood storage were already available at the hospital. He added that the facility currently has a physician, a paediatrician and two anaesthetists, and that a radiologist completing training was expected to join shortly.
He has directed the chief medical officer to submit a detailed report on all surgeries conducted over the past six months to determine whether recent failures stemmed from equipment shortages or staff negligence.
Urging the youths to return home, Gurezi said the required facilities were actively being made available in Gurez. “I appeal to them, do not play politics over dead bodies,” Gurezi said. “If they want to play politics, they should fight with me. People gave me votes, so after five years, they will decide if Nazir Gurezi worked or not.”
