SHOPIAN; As Tariq Ahmad, 30, narrated the story of his descent into darkness after a brief introduction, he produced his medical prescription clearly mentioning pellet injuries.
Tariq is one of the four youth of Shopian who were recently hit by pellets after police used the deadly weapon to disperse people who were demanding bodies of the holy warriors killed in an encounter with forces.
According to doctors at Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, the four are the first recorded cases of pellet injuries in 2014. Two of them have almost lost vision of their right eyes, as doctors scramble to rectify or contain the spreading damage.
The last time Tariq had a clear and painless vision was on February 13, when he visited his in-laws in Pinjoora Shopian to pick up his son. The nearby encounter had long finished and Tariq along with others had assembled to demand the bodies of the militants.
“There was a bang, as if a high speed stone hit a tin and then everything went blank,” said Tariq.
“I remember being lifted, taken to Shopian hospital and then came to senses with vomiting in SMHS.”
Tariq feels those four hours were the most brutal hours of his life. “Now when I close my left eye, there is darkness everywhere,” said Tariq as he reluctantly closed his left eye with his left hand and his cousin fervently snapped fingers before his unresponsive right eye. Barring redness there is no mark or abnormality visible on his perfect looking eye.
“Two pellets are stuck in his right eyeball and we don’t have any facility to remove it,” said the attending doctor. “We have immediately referred him to outside and if possible they should leave today.”
Tariq’s relatives are on phone trying to make arrangements and put together some money. “Be it loan or selling whatever we have, we are trying,” sighed Tariq, a laborer by profession.
Ghulam Mohuidin, 25, doesn’t talk much but clings to his faith in God. “Yesterday I couldn’t see anything but today there is slight vision,” said Ghulam Mohuidin, also laborer by profession. But doctors are not that optimistic unless Mohuidin visits super specialty hospital in Amritsar or New Delhi to remove the pellets and then “hope for the best.”
Ghulam Mohuidin was at the end of the procession when he was hit. “I didn’t felt anything instantly,” he said. “It was after I went to Shopian hospital who referred me to SMHS and my world changed.”
Currently the biggest problem for these youth is to manage the money for treatment and medicines. “They are extremely poor,” confided a doctor, even as Ghulam Mohuidin and Tariq shy away from saying anything.
The anxiety is evident on everyone’s face in ward 8 as the next few days are going to determine whether the duo could ever see again.
They are racing against time and the biggest roadblock is their poverty. There is a murmur, can anybody help?
“Nothing has happened with me like this ever before and now all of a sudden….,” says Ghulam Mohuidin, grappling with words.
The other two- Muhammad Ashraf, 25, and Umar Nabi, 18- have something to cheer about. “They can still see,” says the medical report. Muhammad Ashraf was at the end of the procession when the pellets hit him. Luckily the pellets didn’t hit any of his vital organs and he escaped the permanent damage.
Perhaps Umar is the luckiest of all. He was hit with a barrage of pellets. His nose, face, head and hands have the scars indicating those hot and high speed pellets pierced his skin. “Boom and I was hit by 12 pellets,” said Umar who is a student. “Everybody had assembled peacefully and then suddenly without any provocation forces fired teargas and then pellets on us.”
Police countered the claims of peaceful protests and termed them as violent clashes.
Medicos feel frustrated with the latest pellet injuries. “Pellets are as dangerous as bullets and when fired from close range they can rupture vital organs,” said Dr Nisar ul Hassan, president Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK). “Even if a person survives, he is maimed for life.”
The doctors cite their inability to treat such patients particularly those hit on eyes. “The worst part is that we don’t have facilities to treat such patients here,” said Dr Hassan. “They have to visit the super specialty hospitals outside the State and that too immediately.”
More than 60 youth lost vision due to use of pellets during past three years.
According to Deputy Medical Superintendent, pellets were reported in 2010.
About the total number of patients admitted in the SMHS Hospital Srinagar with pellet gun injuries from 2010 to 2013, the Hospital authorities has stated that there were in 2010, 100 people had suffered pellet injuries. “In 2011, 13 persons were admitted in the Hospital with pellet injuries. 18 persons had pellet injuries during the year 2013,” the hospital authorities maintain.
Department of General Surgery SKIMS Medical College Bemina to a query has maintained that from January 2010 to October 2013, nineteen (19) patients were in Ophthalmology department out of which 15 patients required surgery. It further states that total number of patients who got visually disabled by one eye was 12 and those became permanently blind were two (02).
Earlier, an RTI activist Abdullah Manan Bukhari has contested the information provided by SMHS Hospital about the total number of persons suffering pellet injuries.
The information provided by the PIO, SMHS Hospital Srinagar through Communication number RTI/SMHS/7373-74 dated 6/12/2013 shows the pellet gun injuries from 2010 to 2013 is 47 while the applicant has claimed that number of patients admitted in SMHS Hospital whose complete records including their MRD numbers he possess does not figure anywhere in the list handed over to him by the hospital authorities.
The applicant told that SMHS has provided vague information and has violated the norms of RTI Act. “Why the names of youth like Aqib Ahmed Wani (MRD no. 49876), Muzamil Qayoom (MRD no. 81789), Tariq Ahmed (MRD no. 81586), Mushtaq Ahmed (MRD no. 106698) and Waseem Ahmed (MRD no. 8502) whose record I possess are missing from the injured list. It amply makes it clear that Hospital authorities have provided vague information and have distorted the facts,” Bukhari said.
Besides to these top hospitals, the protesters with pellet injuries admitted in District and Sub-district hospitals, the number of injured by this deadly weapon is quite high.
According to various reports by civil groups, more than 60 youth have lost their vision (including completely and partially) during the past three years.
Pellet guns were introduced in Kashmir as a "non-lethal" alternative to bullets against protesters after nearly 140 unarmed demonstrators were killed in firing by the Indian police and paramilitary forces during 2008, 2009 and 2010 agitations.
A pellet cartridge holds around 500 little iron balls in it, a senior police officer said, and when shot, they scatter in the air, hitting anyone in the range. The Jammu Kashmir Police say that the pellet gun is a nonlethal weapon that is very useful in controlling crowds without causing much damage.
According to the ophthalmologist, S.M.H.S. Hospital has already treated more than 300 young men with pellets in their eyes. “And most avoid coming here if they can, because of the spies that police has posted here,” said the doctor, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter. “They keep a check on our registers and see who has pellet injuries, and then the police comes and arrests them.”
"Pellet injuries are very difficult for doctors to treat because they have no specific entry points and till the doctors are able to find the entry and exit points, there is considerable blood loss," said Uzma Falak a Srinagar- based freelance journalist.
Kashmiri scholar and researcher Abir Bashir Bazaz says both pellet guns and pepper-spray guns have come under sharp criticism in the past elsewhere in the world.
"For instance, Boston Police decided in 2007 to shelve pellet guns after a pellet killed a college student in 2004. It is time perhaps also for a serious rethink on the use of pellet guns and pepper-spray guns against protestors in Kashmir," he said.
"Pellet guns do not kill but terribly maim and disrupt a human life turning the lives of the injured into half-lives," Abir said.
Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch said she was increasingly alarmed at police using lethal force as a first option. “It’s appalling. We’re asking for proper training and accountability. Soldiers are not punished, but if they were prosecuted they would be more careful,” she said.
