Author: Pradeep Thakur, Indrani Bagchi &
Megha Suri
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 23, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1662508.cms
Introduction: Patients with critical burns
rushed out of Hospital, put onto plane
Seven survivors of the Samjhauta Express tragedy
were forced on Thursday to leave Safdarjung Hospital on short notice and taken
away to a waiting Pakistan Air Force aircraft to be flown back home.
All of them were badly burned and a few of
them pleaded that they be allowed to stay back for a few days more for their
wounds to heal. Some said they had no one at home to look after them. But
the doctors said they were helpless; these were orders from above.
It transpires that Pakistan was adamant to
take back their citizens who had survived the blast, no matter what their
medical condition. To make matters worse for them, they were rushed out of
the sanitised burns unit in the afternoon, but until the time of writing their
aircraft had not taken off, ostensibly due to ''technical reasons''. In other
words, they are waiting in the plane without medical attention.
Some of them need it badly. For instance,
9-year-old Shamim was on ventilator when he was almost dragged out of Safdarjung's
ICU along with six others and put on a PAF special aircraft to be airlifted
to Lahore. Some of the blast victims cried in vain to be allowed to stay back
till they recuperated.
As early as Monday, Pakistan asked the Indian
government for permission to bring a C-130 transport aircraft to airlift injured
Pakistani citizens from Indian hospitals. Baffled, the Indian government took
a little time to digest this. The Pakistani victims had been badly injured
in body and in spirit and it seemed a very strange request. Finally, India
said the injured could be removed only after medical clearance.
