J&K Police Begin 'Operation Goodwill' After Facing Backlash Over Alleged Harassment Of Doctors

Jammu & Kashmir Police have recently been facing criticism over complaints of some officers assaulting medical professionals. To deal with this negative publicity, 'operation goodwill' has been initiated.

Srinagar: After facing criticism for harassing doctors and para-medical staff over the past few days, J&K police have started "operation goodwill" to overcome the negative publicity. Police today distributed sweets, chocolates and roses to the doctors and medics at various covid centres and hospitals as a goodwill gesture.

While police had registered cases against the doctors claiming assaults, an enquiry has been ordered against one SHO for assaulting a doctor. The tussle between J&K police and corona warrior doctor's surfaced on 23 May when a senior cardiologist was thrashed and detained by police in Zadibal area of Srinagar. He was not only manhandled and booked but also stopped from joining his duty at SMHS hospital in Srinagar where he was on Covid-19 duty.

After the incident, within a short span of time, seven more cases of police high handedness in dealing with medics came to light. Three lady doctors, including two HOD's, were stopped from entering the hospital at Srinagar's biggest Maternity hospital.

The same day, three doctors and paramedics were stopped from joining their duties at Super Speciality hospital at Srinagar and Baramulla, forcing doctors to protest. Even the principal of Govt Medical College Dr Saima was forced to issue a demarche to police over the harassment.

And now after the intervention of top police officers, including DGP Dilbagh Singh and IG Kashmir Vijay Kumar, police officers in Baramulla, Awantipore, Srinagar, Pulwama and Anantnag visited various hospitals and distributed sweets and flowers among the COVID warriors.

Police officers say that there have been few incidents due to overzealousness of the officers on the ground in enforcing the lockdown, but now IG has issued orders to police to be courteous with CORONA warriors, particularly the medics.

He said, "we want to show the medics that our fight is against the coronavirus and not the doctors".

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