Mir Farhat
SRINAGAR, May 22: With increasing number of burn-injury cases in Kashmir, doctors at SMHS Hospital said most of the cases are homicidal and not suicidal as projected by the people before police and courts.
“The burn injury cases that we receive at the hospital are more homicidal than suicidal. Society needs to get together to prevent such cases,” Head Department of Plastic Surgery, Dr Shabir Iqbal said.
Dr Iqbal suggested that the Government should cover with insurance the patients with burn injuries in the state.
“Such patients also face societal constraints in marriage and other relations as our social fabric is getting loose day by day,” he said.
Dr Iqbal proposed that the Government should keep reservations for these burn-deformed patients so they could live an independent life.
He said that the patients also face problems during the treatment because the GMC was not properly equipped as it lacks some infrastructure to treat these patients.
“The college has no Intensive Care Unit for such patients, besides it also lacks human resources,” Dr Iqbal said.
He said that the society needs to find the solution as such cases are more of a homicide than suicide
The expert was speaking at an “advocacy meet” organized by the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Government Medical College, Srinagar, which was attended by police officers, journalists, lawyers, NGOs, medicos and others.
Dr Arshad Hussain, senior psychiatrist, said suicides are not only increasing in the Valley but “we are seeing violent attempts of suicide which we had not witnessed before”.
“We used to see accident burn cases, not suicidal burns. Domestic violence, self immolation was unheard of in our society. But due to pursuit of material life society is changing now toward worse,” Dr Arshad said.
He said that such cases could be prevented by “religious cognitive reprisals”.
GMC Principal Dr Rafiq Pampori said the institute would get a state-of-the-art burn unit with ICU facilities.
DIG central Kashmir, Afhadul Mujtaba said that police has no exact figures about the cases of burn injuries in the Valley.
He said that policing has been affected in the state because “national security overrides our policing”.
He also blamed the “will of majority” for not stopping such crimes taking place here.
“Society is not actively cooperating in stopping crimes in the state,” he said.
Lawyers said the most of the burn injury cases are domestic violence, dowry, and pressure from in-laws.
They said that acquittal happen in such cases because of the technical flaws in investigation and he suggested that doctors should meticulously report such cases after they treat the patients.
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