Pellet injuries continue amid voices on ban

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 24 Despite a public outcry against the use of pellet guns against protesters, youth with pellet injuries are pouring into hospitals from different parts of Kashmir.

In the past four days, Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital has received over 100 youth with pellet injuries while some have been admitted to Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and district hospitals.

Twelve-year-old Mir Arafat of Khanbal in south Kashmir has been kept under observation at the intensive care unit of the SMHS Hospital. Arafat has received hundreds of pellets in vital organs, like heart, spinal card, right eye, neck, chest, stomach, and intestines.

“He needs multiple surgeries and it is not advisable to do it at this moment. We have kept him under observation and specialists from different departments are looking after him,” a senior resident treating Arafat told The Tribune.

Doctors said they will go ahead with surgeries after seeing Arafat’s response to the treatment in next 48 hours.

“He is clinically stable but we can’t predict anything at this moment. Dozens of pellets have gone deep into his several vital organs,” they said.

Writhing in pain, Arafat, a Class VII student, was playing cricket with other boys when protesters nearby came under bullet and pellet shelling of security forces at Khanbal on Tuesday.

His father, Abdul Rehman Mir accused security personnel of “behaving irresponsibly” during the protests.

The eye department of SMHS Hospital has received 183 patients with grievous eye injuries and 137 among them have been operated upon, a senior eye specialist said.

After growing clamour in media over the use of “lethal” pellet guns against protesters, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday the Central government will rethink the use of pellet guns in Kashmir as he had already received a report on the number of people injured by the use of it after angry mobs took to streets following the July 8 encounter of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani.

Not only Arafat, his two other team mates, including eight-year-old Asif Rashid, were injured in the security forces’ shelling at Khanbal.

Asif is admitted to the Ophthalmology Department of SMHS Hospital where he is nursing grievous wounds in his right eye. He had received some pellets in his chest and abdomen but they had not gone deep inside. “His (Asif) vision is affected and at this moment we are treating his wound,” an eye-specialist said.

For specialised treatment, the doctors have shifted one of the injured, Wasiq Farooq, to SKIMS, Soura, where doctors termed his condition as critical.

While the number of youth injured with pellets is increasing, there is no official word from the PDP-BJP government over the ban of the “lethal” pellet gun.

However, senior PDP leader and Lok Sabha member from north Kashmir Muzuffar Hussain Beg termed the use of pellet guns by the J&K Police as worst crime. Saying it should be stopped, Beg said he had already taken up this issue with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Senior High Court lawyer Zaffar Ahmad Shah said pellets were “lethal and severely damaging the vital organs of human body”.

“It seems some lobby within the government is against banning of use pellet guns in Kashmir,” he said.

However, he said the J&K Bar Association should approach the High Court for seeking directions to prevent the use of pellet guns in Kashmir given the extent of injuries during the past 16 days.

“We have enough evidence to prove that pellets are causing grievous injuries in people,” he said.