Khammam, October 22: Just like his classmates, P Kishore too was excited when his teachers at the Velurpad Zilla Parishad High School told him that policemen would be displaying weapons, including AK47s, .303 rifles and carbines, that he had seen only in movies.
When the moment he had been eagerly looking forward to actually arrived, he stood in the fourth row and was trying to get a closer look at the weapons. Suddenly, there was a bang and something hit him in the leg.
The next thing he did was run for life along with other students. It was only after running for a safe distance that he paused to see blood oozing and realised he was hit by a bullet. He was put in an autorickshaw and rushed to a hospital.
On Thursday, the bullet was removed from Kishore’s right leg but the shock and pain on his face lingered and showed up though he put on a brave face and said that he would start going to school again in a couple of days.
”The policeman (APSP constable M Srinivasa Rao) loaded the weapon right before our eyes but we did not know when he pressed trigger. The next moment we heard gun shots and I, along with others, ran out. Till then I had not known that a bullet had pierced into my leg,” recalls 13yearold Kishore lying in the general ward of a private hospital. He underwent an operation yesterday and the bullet was removed from his right leg.
Kishore vowed to never ever get close to a weapon. ”I will never attend a Police Commemoration Week programme again. Never,” he says with a firm resolve. And, he was eager to get back to school as soon as possible, possibly in the next two days. ”Even the doctors have told me that I can go back to school soon,” he says.
For their part, the doctors confirmed that his condition was stable. Kishre’s parents, Gandhi and Jayamma, are daily wage earners. When they learnt that their son was hit by a bullet, they remained speechless.
Kishore is a student of merit and has always figured in the top 10 ranks of his class. ”My aim is to become a teacher,” he said. He was, however, shocked to learn of the death of Satya Sai Babu, who was hit by two bullets. ”Both of us were shifted to the hospital in the same auto. It is sad he is no more,” Kishore said.
Lying on a bed in the same ward with a swollen cheek was another student G Naveen, who was seen comforting his mother Saidamma who could not come out of the shock.
Naveen was standing in the third row watching the display of weapons when the stray bullet hit his cheek.
Luckily it did not pierce him. ”My father was a forest range officer and is no more, and my mother works as a cook at a hostel. My father’s wish had been to see me become a forest range officer like him. I have always cherished to fulfil his dream,” said Naveen, appearing relaxed after moments of trauma. Naveen is studying Class VII and his sister Nagaveni Intermediate.
–Agencies