The long pending dispute of Jammu and Kashmir continues to
take human lives every year, endlessly. In the year of 2016, the oppressed and
suppressed people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir have once again witnessed the
worst kind of human rights violations by the hands of Indian forces. Kashmiri
civilians have seen curfews, killings, torture, injuries, attacks on medical
ambulances, assault on doctors & paramedical workers and crackdown on
voluntary aid workers by various so called security agencies, raids, illegal
detentions, disappearances, molestation, arson, Vandalizations of properties,
restrictions on political, social and congregational religious activities,
communication and Internet services ban and media gags throughout the year.
However the year will always be remembered as “The year of Pellet Gun”.
The uninterrupted use of this horrific gun by the unbridled
Indian forces has killed, blinded and maimed a huge number of Kashmiri
civilians. The Security Forces, it is now widely accepted, have made and are
making disproportionate and excessive use of pellet guns to deal with peaceful
protests. “The Hindu”, a daily English newspaper published in India, has on
August 19, 2016 reported that the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) told the
Jammu and Kashmir High Court that it used 1.3 million pellets in just 32 days
on Kashmiri civilians to control street protests.
Kashmiris in general believe that there was a conscious
decision to fire the pellets into the eyes of civilians to punish them for
demanding the right of self-determination. The Forces are meant to follow
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which calls for targeting legs in extreme
volatile conditions. However more than 90% of those injured have received
injuries above the waist. “Government forces are deliberately aiming at chests
and heads,” one of the doctors treating pellet victims in Srinagar hospital
told the BBC on condition of anonymity. “They seem to be aiming to kill.” With
the number of eye injuries Kashmiri citizens are facing, it is hard to believe
that any attempt was made to fire below the waist. Pellet gun killings and
blinding have been reported since 2010. However, this time pellet gun killings,
and blinding have assumed monstrous proportions and far exceeded the number of
such cases, reported earlier.
Pellet gun is usually considered as a non-lethal weapon but,
in occupied Kashmir, it has been converted into a lethal weapon by using some
special and deadly cartridges. The doctors, who attended on pellet victims,
support the observation. Indian Express of 16 July, 2016 quotes doctors at SMHS
as saying that the pellets now used are “sharp edged and irregular”.
A senior Ophthalmologist at the Hospital said that “foreign
bodies (pellets) of new kind … For the first time the foreign bodies are more
irregular and sharp edged, which causes more damage once it strikes the eye …
“earlier we used to receive pellets which were round and homogeneous”. Another
Ophthalmologist says, “These new pellets are more dangerous since these pellets
have sharp edges, it is much dangerous, to what we used to see earlier”.
Dr. Natrajan, who operated upon those with pellet injuries,
commenting upon the situation, states “this kind of situation is very rare. It
is a disaster like situation and I am seeing such a situation for the first
time”. He explains that a sharp edged pellet unlike a round pellet, pierces the
eye ball and goes deep into the eye, resulting in a deeper injury, with least
chance of restoration of eye sight.
Dr. Mahesh Shanmugam, who also conducted retinal surgeries
at SMHS Srinagar, shocked by the situation says “this is not any ordinary
situation. It is a race against time – this is war like situation as the number
of this magnitude is unique”. He adds that most of the patients will need
multiple surgeries.
Dr. Sudarshan K Kumar, who led the team of doctors from the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a leading Delhi hospital, has
said that the nature of the injuries was so severe that it was almost as if
Kashmiri doctors were dealing with a “war-like situation”. (Courtesy: Hassan
Banna Ms. Attiya Asim)
