Jammu, July 17 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, a group of armed Hindu men of highly communalised and Indian army backed Village Defence Committee (VDC) beat up Mushtaq Ahmad of Bhaderwah with kicks, blows, sticks and gun butts till he felt unconscious.

Mushtaq now admitted in the Emergency and Observation ward in the Soura Hospital in Srinagar while narrating the tragic incident told a local daily, "I was travelling along with my brother-in-law in a truck when a group of Hindu hooligans belonging to the VDC and armed with weapons, sticks, and knives stopped our vehicle near Sartangal Garh in Bhaderwah. The men dragged us out of the truck and started beating us severely.

Mushtaq's brother-in-law Parvez Akhtar managed to escape from the spot and went to police station Bhaderwah. Police filed an FIR and a police party went to the spot and shifted Mushtaq to the Bhaderwah hospital. Doctors advised his family that he should be immediately shifted to Jammu, as one of his skull bones has been fractured and might need an operation. He was taken to Medical College Hospital Jammu, but the medical staff of Jammu hospital behaved more like Hindu fanatics than non-partisan professionals.

Mukhtar Ahmad, Mushtaq`s nephew, said, " We were frightened and it seemed clear the doctors were hand-in-glove with the VDC members against whom we had filed the FIR. They were planning to eliminate Mushtaq and therefore we removed him secretly from the hospital and boarded a vehicle to Srinagar."

Mukhtar further said that police had not arrested the VDC men who attacked Mushtaq. "But we are more pained by the behaviour of doctors in Jammu. They forgot that they were practicing a noble profession," added Mukhtar.