Victims arrive eleven hours later in Tura
TURA: The three police personnel who sustained splinter injuries in the Siju-Rewak IED blast and lost two other colleagues had to be brought by road all the way from the place of incident to Tura, 140 km away, due to failure by the Meghalaya Government to airlift them earlier for urgent medical treatment.
The police team was ambushed by suspected GNLA militants at approximately 12:30pm and the three injured personnel were rushed to Siju PHC for first aid. From there they had to be transported by road to district headquarters Baghmara before being taken to Tura Civil Hospital for advanced medical care. They arrived in Tura after 11:15 in the night.
Interestingly, central paramilitary forces including the BSF and CRPF have a standard operating procedure that ensures that personnel injured in the line of duty are immediately transported by air to the nearest medical facility to save their lives.
That apparently does not seem to be the case for Meghalaya Police personnel who are battling insurgents in the Garo Hills region.
Police officials tried to downplay the case by claiming that the delay was because doctors first have to certify whether the patient needs to be airlifted or can be transported by road.
“We do not know the nature of their injuries. It is up to the doctors treating them to brief us. By the time the injured were brought from Siju to Baghmara it was already getting dark,” claimed the police while adding that lack of mobile connectivity was a major constrain for police operations in the area.