ISLAMABAD: The Indian forces’ use of pellet guns in the Occupied Kashmir has inflicted a permanent toll on hundreds of Kashmiris hit by them.
“Their faces are scarred. Their eyes are damaged or simply gone, replaced with prosthetics. And, their psychological wounds run deeper still,” a report in ‘the Independent’ UK, said on Saturday.
“What I miss most is being able to read the holy Quran,” said Firdous Ahmad Dar, 25, a Kashmiri man who lost vision in both eyes after being shot with the pellets during an anti-India protest in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK).
For Dar, it meant being completely dependent on the family he once supported by driving an auto-rickshaw.
“My dream was to educate my young siblings, but now they are helping me,” he said.
The report said that the pellets had been in use here since 2010. The latest wave of protests began in early July after Indian troops killed Burhan Wani, a young and charismatic Kashmiri leader.
As government troops cracked down on angry street protests in the Kashmir valley, shotguns were their weapon of choice.
Health officials said that in the past five months more than 6,000 people, mostly young men, had been injured by shotgun pellets, including hundreds blinded in one or both eyes.
Police and hospital officials said the pellets had killed at least eight people, though a prominent local rights group, Jammu- Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, put the death toll from the pellets at 18.
International groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had called for an end to the use of shotguns, which showered pellets widely.
The report said some of those injured were protesters, others just bystanders.
Insha Mushtaq Malik, 14, was standing by the window of her village home watching protesters and troops skirmish when more than 100 pellets hit her face. She lost both eyes.
“Everything looks dark and black,” she said, as smiles and sadness took turns flitting across her face.
Five months after she lost her eyes, Malik was still learning how to deal with her loss, both emotionally and practically. She needed help with everything, including climbing the stairs, going to the bathroom and getting dressed.
Photojournalist Xuhaib Maqbool ended up losing vision in his left eye as he shot images of protesters chanting anti-India slogans and demanding “azadi” – freedom from Indian rule.
He said that he clearly raised his camera to show the soldier who shot at him that he was not a protester. A cycle of violence was repeating itself constantly in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Angry protests were quelled by force that in turn feeded more simmering rage. But sometimes all it left behind was pain and helplessness.