Srinagar: A 20-month old toddler is wailing in pain Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital’s Opthalmology department after we was hit by pellet on her right eye.
The toddler Hiba Nisar underwent an immediate eye surgery after the incident in her home in Shopian after clashes broke between Civilians and security personnel in the region but now this innocent toddler is likely to lose her eyesight in the right eye forever.
According to reports, a civilian was killed and over 50 people were injured in the protests that led to Hiba’s injury on Sunday after the clashes broke between civilians and security personnel.
Speaking to the toddler’s mother Marsala Jan, Indian Express reported the mother was home with her two kids when the sudden protest broke out.
“We were inside our home and intense tear gas shelling was going on outside. At one point, my five-year-old son began complaining of trouble in breathing. I decided to take my children out but as soon as soon as I opened the door, three men (security personnel) fired pellets on us directly,” she recalls.
Hiba Nisar’s family lives in Kaprin – Batgund area of Shopian district where the Sunday protest and encounter is reported to have taken place.
Though Hiba was rushed to a hospital in Shopian, the doctors referred to take her to Srinagar.
Recalling the protest incident, Jan said that even she suffered a pellet injury on her hand while trying to save her children.
“I put my hand on Hiba’s face to protect her.. had I not put my hand, her face would have been disfigured with pellets.”
Not only the toddler was injured, but her brother too was injured in the protest.
“Please check his face and his body parts. He too may have received a pellet,” the father Nisar Ahmad said.
“They didn’t even leave this small kid…I am just praying to God that she has no serious problem in her eye,” he added.
“Her condition is not good. We are keeping our fingers crossed and see how she responds to the treatment,”the doctor at the SHMS told, adding that the “patient has perforation in cornea with pellet in the eye.”
Now the wailing mother asks: “What was her fault? She is too young to understand, what has happened to her…I only pray to God to give a severe punishment to those who are responsible for this, As a mother, I only can understand what she is going through.”