Pellet victim dies as Kashmir unrest enters Day 31
SRINAGAR: A boy, who had suffered pellet injuries last week in Shopian, died at a hospital here on Monday, taking the toll due to pellet guns to five and total deaths in Kashmir unrest to at least 58.
The death of the 17-year-old due to pellet guns busts the government’s stance that the controversial weapon is “non-lethal”.
This comes on the day CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told the Rajya Sabha, “Even Israel does not use pellet guns against Palestinians.”
Amir Bashir Lone, a resident of Sedow area in Shopian, was injured when forces fired pellet guns in retaliation against a massive civilian protest in the area. According to the family, Lone had gone out to offer Friday prayers.
Friday had seen massive clashes leading to three deaths and over 300 injured people in the Valley. Lone died at the SherI-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar where he had been admitted on August 5 and was lying unconscious at the ICU since then.
Sources at SKIMS told HT on the strict condition of anonymity that Lone had multiple injuries in his head and brain due to the pellets leading to his death.
They added the pellets had ruptured Lone’s brain and bone fragments had also gone inside. His grievous injuries included “compound fractures” in which a bone fracture causes an open wound through which bones protrude and “haematoma” which is characterised by collection of blood outside the vessels.
Lone used to work as a welder at a blacksmith shop in Shopian. “He had taken leave for Eid and was supposed to report to work today. But he is dead now,” Zahoor Ahmad Ahanger, the owner of the shop, told HT. Of the five deaths reported last week, two were due to pellet injuries.
Danish Rasool was killed when forces fired pellet gun at protesters in Sopore and ATM guard Riyaz Ahmad Shah was found dead outside a Srinagar hospital with his chest and abdomen ruptured by more than 350 bullets, raising allegations of a “cold-blooded murder”.