Several wounded children in hospitals, some may lose sight

Srinagar, July 13

Just 12 years old, Junaid lies in the surgical ward of a hospital here, with a bullet injury. He will survive, doctors say, but he might become impotent.

“Junaid has been hit in his pelvic area which has damaged his genital organs. He may turn infertile,” Kaiser Ahmad, head of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, said.

Junaid could not speak to inquisitive journalists and his attendants looked too worried to talk. The young boy, with no knowledge of Kashmir’s complex politics, was on a road when he took a bullet fired by the police.

Admitted to the ophthalmology wards 7 and 8 of the SMHS Hospital are other children with pellet injuries.

“There are 10-15 children with pellet wounds in our hospital alone. We have operated on most of them,” said Kaiser. “The condition of almost all of them is improving.” The situation is no different at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Bemina in Srinagar. It has nearly a dozen children admitted with various injuries.

“We have received many children with pellet injuries to eyes. It is very likely that two or three amongst them will never be able to see,” a doctor said.

The children are among the hundreds who have suffered bullet or pellet wounds after security personnel opened fire at mobs protesting against the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

Five-year-old Zohra Zahoor, probably the youngest victim of pellet gun firing by security forces, is unaware of the injuries she has suffered.

“I have been hit by a cracker,” Zohra said in a video circulated by the local media here. “The police uncle threw a cracker on me when I was playing,” she said. “The uncle is bad. Look what he did to my body,” she says.

A family has brought a six-year-old girl who they say got a pellet while playing inside her home.

“My daughter received the injury when she was inside the main gate of our house. It will be the most depressing period of her life,” said her mother Shameema. —IANS