Tribune News Service
Srinagar, January 15
Modi hails force
- “Our Army is well known for its valour and professionalism. It is also respected for its humanitarian spirit. Whenever people have needed help, our Army has risen to the occasion and done everything possible! Proud of our Army. I pray for the good health of Shamima and her child,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter.
Braving freezing temperatures and cruising through waste-high snow, an Army detachment walked for 4 hours to shift a woman in labour to a hospital where she delivered a baby.
On January 14, a day after north Kashmir received the heaviest snowfall in recent times, the Army base at Uplona, Baramulla, received a distress call from a family of Dardpura village, saying a woman had developed severe pregnancy-related complications. The village is nearly 4 km from the Army base.
“Immediately, a patrol under the local company commander and an Army doctor was moved to Dardpura for evacuating the woman, identified as Shamima, to a Baramulla Hospital. The foot patrol started moving her on a stretcher to Uplona through waist-high snow. Meanwhile, the Uplona Rashtriya Rifles Battalion tasked other soldiers to clear the helipad which was under 5 feet of snow for helicopter evacuation. Simultaneously, another party started manually clearing the road from Uplona to Baramulla to facilitate quick movement by road in an ambulance,” an Army statement said.
Once at Uplona, the patient was stabilised and immediately moved by an Army ambulance to a Baramulla hospital.
“The soldiers kept clearing the snow ahead as the ambulance moved along the snow-covered road. At the District Hospital, a healthy baby boy was born. Both mother and child are safe,” he said.