A sitting MLA Thursday led a protest outside the G.P. Pant Hospital in summer capital Srinagar, blaming the doctors for the death of Kashmiri children at the premier hospital.
"It is nothing short of a mass murder of our children," Engineer Rashid, an independent legislator from north Kashmir's Langate constituency told reporters outside the hospital.
"For 1,700 patients, the hospital has just three ventilators. On Friday, I will lodge an FIR (first information report) against the doctors in connection with the deaths," Rashid said.
Minister for Medical Education R.S. Chib, who visited the hospital Thursday, admitted that 358 children have died in the hospital since Jan 1 this year, 35 of them during the last fortnight.
The state government has ordered a one-man probe by Showkat Ali Zargar, director of the prestigious Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS), into the deaths. Zargar has been asked to submit his report within a week.