Victims of pellet firing at a press briefing organised by Amnesty International in Srinagar in September. Many of these, who lost their vision permanently, are now learning Braille.

Srinagar: It was not any less than Doomsday, the end of the world for me," said Insha Mushtaq. On July 11, 2016, she was standing at the window of her house in Sedow village of Jammu and Kashmir's southern Shopian district to look out at the protests raging against the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Suddenly the security forces fired a full burst of pellets at the protesters and some of them hit her in the face and eyes. Her right eye was completely eviscerated and the left one too was badly affected. Then aged 14, Insha also suffered brain haemorrhage, skull fracture and a damage to her nasal, frontal and maxillary bones.

She was initially treated at a Srinagar hospital and then shifted to the Eye Care Centre at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi where chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, visited her to assure "every help" to restore eyesight.

The meeting had left the chief minister agonised. "When I visited the hospital and saw the girl, my heart came in my mouth (sic) after seeing the condition of the innocent girl who wanted to become a doctor. When I called Insha and asked her that if she is annoyed with me, her mother was in tears which made me to think whose fault is this," she had said in Jammu.

"The lone girl child of her parents, Insha, became victim for none of her fault. I thought whether I committed anything wrong, our government did anything wrong and why did this happen? I also told the doctors that if possible, I will donate my one eye so that Insha could also see this world," Ms Mufti had said.

Insha was treated for brain infection and underwent surgeries also at the AIIMS, New Delhi, and Aditya Jyot Hospital, Mumbai, but doctors could not restore her eyesight.  After spending more than seven months in hospital, she returned to her home in February.

Apart from bearing the expenses on her treatment in Delhi and Mumbai, the family, devastated by the incident, has received a cash assistance of `2,00,000 from the government besides a driver's job in the J&K State Motor Garages for her father.  However, the family which is finding it difficult to make ends meet feels it has been virtually left in the lurch. "Doctors tell us not much can be done now," said Mushtaq Ahmed, Insha's father.  Her mother Afroza Bano is waiting for a miracle. "We all know that only God can do a miracle. He is our only hope," she said.

Insha Mushtaq at hospital after being hit by pellets

As for Insha, she lost her eyesight but not her spirit. Earlier this month, she appeared in her Class 10 board examination and says that she has done fairly well. She was assisted in writing her papers by another girl student appointed for the task by the J&K Board of School Education.

Though government figures are around 1,725, rights groups claim that there are more than 2,500 people, mainly youth, who were affected by the use of pellet shotguns by security forces during the post-Burhan Wani killing unrest. For many of them, the world is lost and with that they lost interest in life. Others are fighting "dark" battles alone. An estimated 400 youth have lost vision in one or both eyes due to pellets. Those who have been blinded forever are now learning Braille. Rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has called for a blanket ban on the use of pellet shotgun,

Security forces' officials who had been maintaining that the pellet-firing shotgun is "non-lethal" now do admit that it has killed, blinded and maimed people.

The authorities have assured that the pellet shotgun will be phased out completely. Till such time, it would be used sparingly and only when all other modes of crowd control like teargas, oleoresin grenades, stun grenades fail to yield any desired results. "We're now using mainly (chilly-filled) PAVA shells. Also, the security forces on crowd control assignment have been instructed by Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid to strictly adhere to the standard operating procedure (SOP) in letter and spirit," said a police spokesman.

Official sources here said that the J&K government has planned to rehabilitate 1,725 pellet victims by providing them jobs or cash compensation. A list of victims identified for rehabilitation has been submitted to the State Human Rights Commission for a final decision.

But as of now, none of them has been rehabilitated or compensated, admitted a senior government official. "A couple of cases, including that of a press photographer, were considered for cash relief. Others have been left in the lurch," the officer who requested anonymity said.

Rights groups complain that the government is oblivious about the identity of 804 pellet victims. They are in addition to 1,725 people who figure in the list submitted to the rights commission. For instance, the local administration in Shopian informed the SHRC that 850 pellet victims had visited various health facilities and that among them 67 had suffered eye injuries. But it has been able to identity only 330 of them.

As per data collected by local human rights groups, in the post-Wani protests, 1,252 pellet injuries were reported from Baramulla distric with Sopore town accounting for the highest 440 followed by Sheeri (155), Pattan (131), Kreeri (107) Dangiwacha (99), Rohama (47), Kunzer (23) and Tangmarg (6).  Kupwara, the other district of north Kashmir, had reported 48 such cases whereas 1,060 pellet injuries were reported in Kulgam, Shopian, Anantnag and Pulwama districts. In the central Valley, Ganderbal had 137 and Srinagar had 27 such cases.