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)
