Checkpoint in Kashmir: army and police are struggling to control protestors(Photo: © CMS)Concern is growing over violence in Kashmir. CMS contacts at a Christian hospital there are caught up in a maelstrom of retribution
Staff at a Christian hospital in Kashmir have been praying till 4am each night as mobs riot on their doorstep.
Violence in Indian-administered Kashmir has blown up between government forces and protestors, resulting in a curfew being imposed for the last month.
“Kashmir is just boiling,” says the medical director of the hospital, Dr Sarah, “People are burning the police stations, railway stations.”
The situation seemed more stable in the last week of July, Dr Sarah reported, but fresh killings had ignited more violence from last Friday.
Police fired on protesters, killing nine civilians. In turn the protesters set fire to a camp of the Special Operations Group, an elite force of the Jammu and Kashmir police.
The clashes between the police and the army and protestors started in June following so-called ‘fake encounters’. Soldiers receive laurels and extra pay for an “encounter” with terrorists. But the encounter that sparked the violence left two dead, who were later proven to be innocent civilians.
Public anger erupted and ever since there has been tit-for-tat violence between government forces and protesters.
Thirty-two people have been killed in the last seven weeks, according to the BBC.
The staff at John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Anantnag are doubly a minority group – as Christians and Indians, as opposed to native Kashmiris.
The hospital is loved by many in the local community for providing accessible, cheap healthcare, says John Hayward, CMS regional manager, who visited in June. But it is also hated by other medical centres for taking away business.
“The windows had been boarded up and a ‘safe room’ created where staff could hide in case of trouble,” says John. “But overall the atmosphere was positive, despite the underlying tension, with the staff feeling strongly called to be there.”
Curfews and blockades add to the hospital’s problems, making it difficult to get basic food supplies as well as simply making travel difficult. “The hospital has been under virtual siege in recent days,” says John Hayward.
For two caesarean sections in July, the hospital had to send a vehicle to the district hospital to fetch an anaesthetist. “On the way some mob threw stones at our vehicle,” said Dr Sarah; “it's only by God’s mercy that our vehicle and brothers escaped from that mob.”