How Health Warriors At A Jammu And Kashmir Hospital Stood Their Ground Amid Pakistan Shelling In Border Areas
While people ran for their lives to safer places, health warriors at District Hospital Poonch saved lives by attending to the injured.
Published : May 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM IST
By Amir Tantray
Jammu: When majority of the population of Poonch town and adjoining areas in Jammu and Kashmir fled to safer places to save their lives during the intense shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, the staff of district hospital Poonch stood their ground without leaving any patient unattended.
These health warriors, be it doctors or paramedical staff, for around 100 hours remained stationed in the district hospital Poonch without caring what will happen to them or their families if shells land on the hospital or on their homes.
They reacted immediately to every exigency arising out of the shelling and provided all possible healthcare facilities to the injured people coming from different areas of Poonch district including the town, which witnessed bombardment from the Pakistani forces.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Poonch Dr. Parvez Ahmed Khan, informed that on the intervening night of May 6-7 when it all started, all the staff remained inside the hospital premises for four days till the ceasefire was announced. “It was a tough time indeed and nobody knew what would happen next. But everybody performed their duties with utmost dedication and accepted whatever challenges they faced,” Dr. Khan said.
From top to bottom, the officers and officials of the health department gave their best and didn’t let the things go out of control.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Bhagat, Surgeon specialist in district hospital Poonch said that when the shelling started on the first night, Director Health services Jammu Dr. Abdul Hameed Zargar was in Poonch to review the healthcare infrastructure in the district and at around 3 am on May 7, he conducted a meeting of all officials in the hospital premises and strategy was devised as how to react to the situation.
“The basement of the old and new Out Patient Department (OPD) was assigned to doctors and other staff whereas three different teams constituted which included emergency, theatre and other departments which helped us a lot to rise up to the occasion,” Dr Bhagat told ETV Bharat.
He informed that on May 7 morning around 6 to 6:30 hours, injured patients started reaching the hospital and critical patients were being revived first and whenever there used to be a break in shelling, the patients were being referred to GMC Rajouri or GMC Jammu for specialized treatment.
“Our own families were staying here and as most of the staff is local, they couldn’t go home because of the situation. My family was also here during the day on May 7 and when we got a chance, they were sent to Jammu but I stayed back in the hospital,” Dr. Bhagat said, adding, “When our forces were protecting our borders, it was also our duty to help people in the tough times. It was like a ‘Day of Testimony’ for us as well.”
Apart from treating injured patients and saving their lives, the biggest challenge for the health officials was to bring the injured safely to the hospital. “In the initial stage, it was quite difficult to bring them to the hospital but after that we got a mobile bunker which helped us a lot in this regard and people from border areas were also shifted in that vehicle,” the CMO Poonch said.
CMO Dr Parvez Khan was in all praise for his staff and said, “I remain in the hospital all the time and their morale gets a boost when their head leads from the front. Everybody worked selflessly and proved that they are the real health warriors.”
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