Shopian killings: Pellet horror revisits Kashmir
20-year-old man from south Kashmir lies in agony in the ophthalmology ward of Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, his left eye swollen and shut after being hit by multiple pellets on Sunday in south Kashmir’s Shopian.
Speaking softly, he describes how he was hit when a trooper pointed a gun at him from a bullet-proof Rakshak vehicle at Dragad in Shopian where a “few boys” were throwing stones at security force personnel.
“At first, I thought I was hit by a bullet and fell down. I later realised I was hit by these multiple metal balls,” said the first-year BA student, who was pensive throughout the interview. After an initial rounds of surgeries, the man has been kept under observation in the hospital for doctors to check on his “visual progress”.
Protests were triggered on Sunday in south Kashmir after three simultaneous gun battles erupted in Anantnag and Shopian districts on Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon, security forces had killed 13 militants. Four civilians and three soldiers also died in violence.
Besides tear gas shells, security forces used firearms to control the stone-pelting protesters around the sites of the encounters at Dragad and Kachdoora in Shopian district.
At least 41 people hit by pellets were brought to the SMHS hospital on Sunday evening, according
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to doctors. Some eight persons with bullet and pellet injuries were admitted in the hospital.
Inspector general of Central Reserve Police Force (operations) Zulfikar Hassan said Sunday that there was an unprecedented law and order situation in Shopian.
“There was a design to help the terrorists. A lot of people went there. What we would like to make clear is that our operations won’t stop. Some people under the influence of anti-nationals go there and try to disturb the operations. We will handle the crowd with restraint but at the same time we would not shy away from taking very strict action,” he said.
A 17-year-old undergoing treatment at SMHS said pellets hit him in the left eye when he was throwing stones near the encounter site in Kachdoora in Shopian. “My vision in the injured eye is now blurry. Hope I recover soon.”
Senior doctors are not optimistic about the victims regaining vision soon. “It will take series of operative procedures to treat them. It is too early to comment on the prognosis,” a senior ophthalmologist said on the condition of anonymity. “These are bad injuries. Overall 35 patients were admitted and operated for pellet injuries in their eyes as a result of the clashes on Sunday. The outcome of the treatment is not immediately clear,” he said, adding majority of the patients were discharged for the time being.
Going by their experience of treating similar pellet injuries in 2016, most patients would have to return for a follow-up examination and some would need up to three rounds of surgeries, he said.
Asked why he was taking part in the stone-pelting protest, the 17-year-old school student said, “Our brothers were stuck in the encounter. What would have happened at the most – death? One day or the other everybody has to die.”