Renowned Kashmiri Pandit cardiologist opens heart centre for needy in Pulwama

I am investing in hope, says Dr. Upendra Kaul as he opened the state-of-art Prasad Joo Khan Heart Centre for poor and needy patients in Pulwama’s Hawal village

Relations between Kashmiri Muslims and the Pandit community may have witnessed tense moments in the past three decades, including recently, when several Hindus and Pandits were victims of targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to widespread fear in the minority community. However, that did not deter Upendra Kaul, renowned cardiologist and a Kashmiri Pandit, from winning the hearts of Muslims in even the remotest corners of the Union Territory.

On Saturday, Dr. Kaul opened the state-of-art Prasad Joo Khan Heart Centre for poor and needy patients in Pulwama’s Hawal village. Alka Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, inaugurated the facility.

Named after Dr. Kaul’s grandfather, the centre will cater to the needs of the people of south Kashmir.  “This project means coming back home. I am trying to give back to the society I belong to by providing good heart care. I am investing in hope,” Dr. Kaul told  The Hindu.

Dr. Kaul, chairman and dean of academics and research at the Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Delhi, will attend to patients at the centre’s outpatient department in Pulwama once in a week, and also meet them Srinagar.

He hailed from Pulwama’s Hawal area before his father shifted to Delhi. The flat sections atop the highlands of Hawal were once home to 44 Kashmiri Pandit families. However, only one Pandit family, Omkar Nath, was left behind after the rest migrated in the 1990s in the face of raging militancy.

On Saturday, locals accompanied Mr. Nath to the inauguration of the project. Many Pandits from the Hawal transit camp also attended the event. “It was not possible to realise the dream project without the help of locals,” Dr. Kaul said.

In fact, several Muslim villagers in Hawal launched a signature campaign and wrote to Deputy Commissioner Baseer-ul-Haq Chaudhary “for allocation of government land to the Gauri Kaul Foundation, which has set up the centre, to building a heart centre”. The villagers fear that widening of a highway may result in the dismantling of the centre.