Srinagar:
Strict curfew for the past 5-days has crippled the lives of the people in the Valley. Medical shops have been shut and with no access to medicines patients are suffering in hospitals.
7-year-old Alam Firdous suffers from a heart condition but can't get medical help due to strict curfew in Srinagar. She has been forced to stay home for the past 5 days. Her father Firdous Ahmad says, "I am not able to get medicines for my daughter who is suffering. I am not able to get medicines for my father, as you see he is lying on the bed. We are not able to get milk for my 3-year-old daughter and no essential items for my home.''
Strict curfew has been imposed across the Valley after violence broke out on Eid.
And caught in the strife are ordinary people, little children like Alam who hasn't been to school for 3-months since the latest cycle of violence began. Alam Firdous says, "I am not getting milk, chocolates, nothing. I can't go for tuitions either."
Hidden from the political debate, households explain the real pain and suffering people are facing in Kashmir.
A few miles away dozens of patients and their attendants wait outside the casualty ward of Kashmir's biggest hospital. Some desperately want to go back home but cannot.
Only emergency cases are getting ambulances and without an ambulance it is impossible to move around.
Rona has been desperately trying to get medicines for her ailing husband but shops are shut. "I have been trying to get medicines since 12 pm but all shops are closed. Doctor said this medicine is very urgent otherwise the patient can die'', she said.
While the government is saying that curfew has been imposed to restore order and prevent violence and more killings, on the ground it is causing hardships to the people and patients who have no access to medicine. Medical shops have been shut because of curfew and patients are suffering in the hospital. Both patients and doctors are asking how hospitals can run without medicines.