German media exposes India's claim about 'no health crisis' in Kashmir

Normal life remained affected for 43rd consecutive day, due to curfew and communications blackout.

SRINAGAR (Dunya News) – India’s claim about no health crisis and normalcy returning to the occupied Kashmir was exposed by Deutsche Welle (DW) News, a German state-owned public international broadcaster, stating that the valley under siege is facing severe health crisis.

Kashmiris spoke to DW, and revealed that Indian media reports the ongoing situation in the region as “all is well”, however the actual condition was in contradiction to it.

German news agency conducted various interviews of the affectees where one of the Kashmiris expressed, “No civilized people in the world will allow these types of restrictions”.

DW reported that Indian occupied Kashmir has been under siege for more than a month. The lockdown badly affects medical treatments whereas local hospitals are struggling to care for thousands.

Tariq, a Kashmiri, talked about the closed ORs in the region, “My sister is supposed to have a surgery. They had told us to come today but when we came here today, the doctors told us that the operation theatres are closed”.

The Indian government denies there is a "health crisis" in Kashmir. But hospitals are struggling to care for patients and canceling surgeries as the lockdown stretches into a second month. pic.twitter.com/Fi8GcadCXN

— DW News (@dwnews) September 16, 2019

Hardly half the usual amounts of elective surgeries are taking place. Due to communications blackout people can’t reach ambulances. “My sister is very sick. We can’t even call an ambulance. The phones aren’t working. I had to bring her on a scooter, for over 15 kilometers”, said one of the Kashmiris.

Another resident asserted, “There are no communication channels, mobile services are down and everything is cut off. My brother had an accident and some kind people came to our home 25 kilometers away to tell us. That’s how we found about it”.

Another guy named Hassan, who suffered injuries in a motorbike accident and was brought by passerby to the hospital, asserted that communication has been totally barred and asked how his family would know about his condition, “How could my family have known if their son is dead or alive?”

India-occupied Kashmir has been under a strict lockdown since August 4 after New Delhi revoked the region’s special status. A Kashmiri journalist has now been prevented by authorities from flying abroad, reported DW.

In occupied Kashmir, normal life remained affected for the 43rd consecutive day, due to curfew and communications blackout with massive Indian forces’ fortified and bullet-proof bunkers returning to Srinagar and other parts of the valley.