By Monica Islam:
Imagine going for tuitions and landing up in a hospital bed instead because dozens of pellets have hit the areas around your eyes, and nearly hundred pellets have pierced your skull, jaws, brain, lips, and nose. That is exactly what happened to a 16-year old boy named Hamid Nazir Bhat last Thursday in Jammu and Kashmir.
[caption id="attachment_48697" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Picture credit: HT[/caption]
Hamid, a tenth-grade school student, went out on the streets to see if his tuition centre was open but got caught up in the middle of a protest observing the 25th death anniversary of Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq. According to family members, Hamid’s face was disfigured beyond recognition as it appeared to be a “mass of flesh and blood”. Doctors explained that the pellets around his eyes caused a blood clot in those areas, making his face swell. While Hamid’s life is out of danger, he is unlikely to gain vision in his right eye.
This incident has prompted rights organizations, such as Amnesty International India, to condemn the use of pellet guns in controlling crowds in Jammu and Kashmir. Amnesty International India’s Programmes Director, Shemeer Babu asserts that the use of pellet guns is not in line with international standards on the use of force. In contrast, the silence of Jammu and Kashmir’s current Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on this issue is the most troubling, and here’s why.
Pellet guns are known for being inaccurate and indiscriminate because of natural properties, such as air resistance and sound barrier. The grades of the pellet guns determine speed and range (the lower the grade, the greater its speed and range). A senior police officer alleges that although written instructions have been given to law enforcers to use grade 9 for crowd control, grades 6 and 7 are routinely used in villages. Other sources add that the most sensitive police stations in Jammu and Kashmir receive grades 5, 6, and 7.
Despite such risky characteristics, the regular use of pellet guns in Jammu and Kashmir paints a grim picture. Doctors at the Bemina Hospital and Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital say that more than 700 people in the last five years have been disabled by pellet guns. A senior ophthalmologist of Srinagar was quoted by The Hindu to have said, “70 per cent of them face eye injuries.” Several victims were shot at from a range of two feet with the gun aimed at their faces.
In the face of all these occurrences, the state government’s actions are even more alarming. In spite of government orders to use pellet guns sparingly, law enforcers act as if they have little to fear, making us wonder if they have some sort of invisible impunity given to them by higher authorities. A hospital administrator has already alleged that police spies note down the details of patients, arrest them, and extort money, resulting in many patients leaving the treatment halfway with pellets and pus in their eyes! Yet, the government seems to be downplaying these incidents by describing pellet guns as “non-lethal.” To me, that statement sounds like: if you are not dead, you are not suffering!
Honorable Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the world is waiting for tangible actions from you to curb the use of pellet guns in Jammu and Kashmir. Those impoverished families who had to sell off their meager possessions to treat their children are waiting.
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