KL Report
SRINAGAR
February 18, 1993, the day when Kashmir lost Prof Farooq Ashai, then HOD Orthopaedics who fell to bullets of government forces. Twenty Two years have passed, but the memories are still fresh. Wednesday a general meeting was held in Government Medical College Srinagar which was attended by a large number of medical students, resident doctors and paramedics wherein glorious tributes were paid to the son of soil.
Founder of Srinagar’s Bone and Joint Hospital, Prof Ashai at the time of death was chief orthopaedic surgeon at the Bone and Joint hospital and a faculty member & HOD at medical college Srinagar (Department of orthopedics).
Considered to be father of orthopaedics in Kashmir, Prof Ashai frequently met with foreign journalists and human rights representatives. He acted as a spokesman for injured civilians in Kashmir.
On the fateful day, Prof Ashai was accompanied by his wife, Dr Fareeda (a senior anaesthesiologist) and his daughter. He was fired from a point blank range a few hundred metres from the same hospital which he had founded and he was operated on the same table on which he used to operate patients. Later, it was reported that his family complained that he died due to a massive blood loss as the same CRPF unit had stopped an ambulance carrying surgeons Dr. Manzoor and Dr. Sethi for a pretty long time.
In GMC while remembering Prof Ashai, special prayers were held and it was unanimously decided that the best academician of the year will be given as ‘Prof Farooq Ashai memorial award’ annually.
