SMHS – The Wire

J&K: Leaders Criticise Move to Drop ‘Sher-e-Kashmir’ from Conference Centre’s Name

The title was used attributed to former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah and the centre has been used as a subsidiary prison since August last year.

New Delhi: The move by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to drop the ‘Sher-e-Kashmir’ title from the famous eponymous conference centre in Srinagar has been criticised by politicians Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, a CPI(M) leader, and former Union minister Saifuddin Soz.

The Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) will now simply be called as the Kashmir International Conference Centre. The title ‘Sher-e-Kashmir’ is attributed to the erstwhile state’s former chief minister, Sheikh Abdullah.

The conference centre, which is located on the banks of the Dal Lake, has played host to a number of international and national conferences. After the Centre’s decision to dilute Article 370 in August last year, the centre was turned into a subsidiary. Politicians such as People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone, PDP leader Naeem Akhtar, National Conference leader Ali Mohammad Sagar and bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal were among those held at the centre.

In a statement, CPI(M) leader Tarigami said dropping the Sher-e-Kashmir title is an “attack on the history of J&K”. The move attempts to undermine the contribution of the leadership headed by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, who preferred secular India over Pakistan by rejecting the two-nation theory, he said.

“Sher-e-Kashmir is not just a title but a glorious chapter of history in Jammu and Kashmir. We might have difference with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah but that doesn’t mean we should undermine his and his colleagues’ historic role which they played right from their advent on the political scene,” the statement reads.

He said the contribution of the ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’ led by Sheikh Abdullah for the upliftment of the people and “revolutionary changes” in the agrarian and education sectors laid the foundation of ‘Naya Kashmir’. This idea has been under attack since the BJP came to power at the Centre, especially after the August 5 decision last year, Tarigami said.

He also recollected that July 13, observed as Martyr’s Day and on the birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, has been dropped as a public holiday. This, when seen in conjunction with removing the title of ‘Sher-e-Kashmir’ from the state award and police medal, “exposes the dubious stand of the BJP time and again. BJP can welcome with open arms any body when it feels its need but will not hesitate in punishing him/her, when it opposes their disastrous policies”.

“We cannot look at the emerging situation in isolatation. That will only amount to playing in the hands of those working behind the scene and aiming at disrupting our unity. The time demands all of us to stand together at this crucial juncture of our history and safeguard the interests of our people,” the statement concludes.

Saifuddin Soz, former Union minister and Congress leader, said that the people of Kashmir never changed the names of old institutions, as they were part of history. “So, Hari Parbat, Jogi Lankar, Amar Singh College, Sri Pratap College, SMHS Hospital, Vishwa Bharti College, Gandhi Memorial College and dozens of other titles of institutions have continued to be the same,” he said.

He said that the current administration, “even though, it is an intermediary arrangement before elections”, continues to change the names of institutions when it does not have the mandate.

“We know very well that we have fallen to the very bad times; but, we did not know that the government has become so impatient to impair every element of our identity, before it completes its tenure,” he said.

Watch | In Srinagar Hospital Ward, Pellet Victims Belie Official Claims of ‘Calm’

Siddharth Varadarajan speaks to patients undergoing treatment at the Sri Maharaj Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar.

While a section of the media has claimed that the situation in Kashmir is calm after the Centre decided to revoke Article 370 and split Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, The Wire found that several people have been injured by security forces firing pellet guns at them. Siddharth Varadarajan speaks to patients undergoing treatment at the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar.

Also Read: Ground Report | Pellet Blindings Back as Protestors Challenge Centre’s Kashmir Move

Kashmir, the Paradise that Breaks Your Heart

A look at the lives of locals and those affected by pellet guns during the weeks of violence and protests in the Valley, before the curfew was finally lifted after 51 days.

On August 5, Umar Yousuf, a class 11 student from Budgam, was hit by pellets in his left eye in the Beeru area of the district. Credit: Shome Basu

“I haven’t had ice cream for a long time,” five-year-old Afsa said. He clutched his mother’s hand tightly as she tried to make him sleep amid the loud noises of shelling and stone pelting that was taking place right outside their house. The Indian paramilitary forces continued their rampage as the locals protested.

Welcome to Srinagar.

People here ended their day by 6 pm as they was nothing left to do thanks to the curfew. People turned off the lights inside their rooms as darkness set in. They talked in hush tones and carried on with their lives in darkness in a strange and surreptitious atmosphere.

Curfew had been imposed in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. Since then, the Valley had witnessed unprecedented turmoil.

The curfew was lifted on August 29, 51 days after being imposed – the longest curfew in the entire history of the Kashmir unrest. This time, the protests reached even the remotest hamlets of the Valley, where until then, protests had only been heard about, never actually seen.

Even though there had been a strict curfew in the city, some restricted movements were allowed. The day passed by according to the the calendar proposed by the joint Hurriyat leadership.

Everyday, as per the calendar, the shutdown would be in force until six in the evening after which the shops and business would reopen.

But then a sudden flag march by the Indian security forces would take place, creating a street rampage. The forces would break window panes with canes and stones, and hurl abuses at the people in the streets. Within minutes, the shutters would be rolled down and silence would take over. In a few alleys, some would chant azadi slogans and try to intimidate the forces.

The homes were blacked out; the torches on mobile phones became the standby light for people in the dark rooms. The sound of the CRPF marching and caning at the shutters would continue through the night. The trauma was unending.

Kashmir has incurred a net Rs 6,400 crore loss during the curfew.

Many, including Meharaj Uddin, a shikara owner at the Dal gate, blamed both India and Pakistan for the problems in Kashmir. He even blamed the Hurriyat leadership for the crisis.

An eminent citizen of Srinagar, who wishes to be identified as Dr. Dar, had an honest take on the situation. To him, the showcasing of the Pakistani flag by the angry youth was an insult to the Kashmiri culture. Most citizens detest such radical moves but the options were limited, he said.

The killing of Wani has ended the peace process, said a manager at State Bank of India, who wished to remain anonymous. If they had arrested him and kept him in captivity, then such an uproar may not have occurred. They blame both India and Pakistan for the creation of such a paralysis and believe that the two countries have their own interest in keeping the issue on the boil.

There have also been many violations of human rights.

A CRPF member, who specialises in pellet guns, said that he too was tired. There was no sleep or peace, only fear. The forces had to bear the brunt of the numerous injuries caused by pellets. Although they said they sprayed the pellets on the streets, which recoiled and hit the attacking crowd, doctors at the SMHS Hospital tell a different version.

A section of Kashmir’s elite community want the security forces to leave the city, where they have been intimidating locals. If the forces had left the city then the protesters would have had no one to throw stones at.

Their hope is that law and order improves.

The ongoing psychological warfare is deepening the wounds and engulfing the next generation with a hatred towards India. During an India-Pakistan cricket match, most Kashmiris support Pakistan, members of the city’s elite say. It is just a way to vent their anger at the Indian government for the atrocities that the people of Kashmir have experienced.

Even children have begun to discuss the crisis and its consequences. At schools, seven-year-olds discuss how they must react to the ongoing civil unrest in the Valley.

The Valley was buzzing with slogans of azadi; the anti-India sentiments were at its height. A local unemployed boy, a regular participant in protests, said it was better to die than live in a police state.

But many in Kashmir remained hopeful that lasting peace and normalcy would return.

(Additional reporting by Nissar Ahmad Dharma)

In Kashmir, the Young Are Paying for Government’s Lack of Vision

Credit: Sunandita Mehrotra

Srinagar: Fourteen-year-old Insha Malik lies unconscious in the surgical ICU of the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, her eyes pierced by pellets. The damage caused to her vision, according to a doctor attending her, is irreparable.

“Her right eye has been ruptured and her left eye is lacerated. She will be blind in both eyes for her entire life,” said the doctor.

Among the toppers in her school at Sedow village in Shopian district, the class 9 student is the latest pellet-victim admitted to the SMHS hospital where hundreds of civilians – mostly teenagers injured in action by security forces in the wake of July 8 killing of militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani – are recuperating.

Insha Malik. Credit: Special Arrangement

According to Vakil Ahmad, her cousin, Insha was having dinner at home on Tuesday evening when the pellets fired outside by security forces personnel came inside the kitchen and hit the teenage student in her face.

With each passing hour the hospital receives fresh eye-injury cases, most of them from south Kashmir, the epicentre of renewed protests in the Valley after the killing of Burhan.

While the 70-bed ophthalmology ward of the hospital is full with the patients including teenagers and even minors, the administration had to manage space in the adjacent ward No. 3 and 4 (medicine wards) for treatment of eye-injury patients.

“We have already operated upon 102 patients with pellet injuries in one or both eyes,” said Dr S. Tariq Qureshi, head of the ophthalmology department at SMHS, adding that while 42 of these patients would regain “good vision” in their injured eye(s), the remaining cases would require multiple surgical interventions before “anything can be said about them.”

Termed a “non-lethal” weapon by the government, pellet guns were used by the police and CRPF for the first time in 2010 as a means of quelling protests.

The pellets, essentially tiny ball bearings, come in grades of 5 to 12 – 5 being the fastest and most damaging, said a police official, adding the preferred pellet grade in Kashmir was 6 and 8. The official said one cartridge contains 400-500 pellets.

“The pellets may not kill but they ruin life of a person. In many cases patients suffer from sympathetic ophthalmitis, a condition in which vision in the normal eye smears following the loss of eyesight in the injured eye,” a senior registrar at the ophthalmology department told the Wire.

In ward No 16-A, doctors feared that Umer Nazir, a 6th class student from Rajpora, Pulwama who was operated upon on Sunday for removal of pellets from his abdomen and intestines, would lose vision in both eyes.

Umer’s father Nazir Ahmad, a laborer said his son was on the roadside with his friends when he was hit by pellets fired by policemen on a group of protestors.

“Doctor, it is becoming shady in front of my left eye as well,” 12-year Umer told one of the doctors during his morning rounds to examine the admitted patients. Umer has suffered “severe retinal detachment” in his right eye with injury to the optic nerve as well.

The Numbers swell

Umer Nazir. Credit: Special Arrangement

Till Thursday, 123 patients with pellet injuries in one or both eyes, mostly in the age group of 15-30, were admitted to the hospital. The nature of the injury suffered by these patients varies from open to closed globe injuries, retinal and cornea detachment.

“We have never received so many cases in such a short span of time. It is the worst that I have ever seen,” said a surgeon.

As per official records, 60 patients with pellet injuries in one or both eyes were operated upon during the first two days of protests, i.e. Sunday and Monday – a record number of surgical procedures carried in a short span of time at the hospital.

Senior ophthalmologist Sajad Khanday said that apart from the cases at SMHS, there were around 28 pellet injury cases bing treated at JVC hospital Bemina, on the outskirts of Srinagar.

“The SKIMS Institute (a tertiary care hospital) has also admitted eye injury cases. In total, the number of eye injury cases is more than 150,” said Dr Khanday.

He asserted that more than 75% of these patients would require retinal intervention. “Once a pellet pierces the eye, it damages its different components, resulting in loss of vision over the period of time,” he said.

Another senior doctor, who asked that he not be identified, said patients suffering from retinal detachment have “zero chances” of regaining vision. “And their number is more than 75. No matter which surgical procedure you follow, they aren’t going to regain their sight,” he asserted.

The news that his son, Muhammad Arif, a 12th standard student, may not be able to see with his right eye, left Hussain Muhammad shattered in ward No 8 this morning. Hussain, a resident of Baramulla district, cried aloud and hugged his son as he lay in bed.

Arif, however, was calm. “I am ready to lose both my eyes if we achieve azadi (freedom),” the 18-year-old student told this reporter.

Human rights activist Mannan Bukhari, who has documented pellet injuries in his 283-page book, Kashmir – Scars of Pellet Gun, said at least 10 people have been killed and more than 1500 seriously injured due to the use of pellets by the forces on the protestors since 2010.

“Today the number of the injured will be more than 1800,” said Bukhari.

‘War like situation’

A three-member team of eye specialists from AIIMS that was rushed to Srinagar on Thursday at the request of the state government to assist doctors at SMHS in treating patients with eye injuries said the situation was “intense and bad”.

“I haven’t seen such a number of eye injuries in recent years. In a war-like situation, you will get a lot of such injuries,” said AIIMS team leader Sudarshan K. Kumar after examining around 50 patients with injuries to their retina.

Commenting on the magnitude of the injuries, Dr Kumar said the eye injury patients would regain “20% or 40% of vision”.

“At least 70-80% of these patients will regain ‘some vision’ but they won’t have a normal vision… The pellets have done damage to their eyes,” he doctor, adding that he supported the idea of “avoiding” the use of pellet guns.

The team was sent by the Union health ministry on the request of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose government is facing severe criticism for the use of “excessive force” by security personnel.

So far, 38 civilians including a teenager, have been killed and over 1600 injured in the past six days. One policeman died in mob violence and several security forces personnel have been injured, including some with the shrapnel of grenades that they said were thrown by assailants hiding behind young stone pelters.

Banning pellet guns an option?

Muhammad Arif. Credit: Mudassir Ahmed.

During its stint in opposition, the Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party repeatedly cornered her predecessor Omar Abdullah over the use of pellet guns while seeking a ban on the “lethal” weapon.

However after taking over the reins of the state, her party, which is running the government in coalition with the BJP, has continued with the policy of using pellet guns.

Last year the international watchdog Amnesty International had asked the state government to stop the use of pellet guns after a teenager from Palhalan in Baramulla, Hamid Nazir, was hit by more than 100 pellets in his face and eyes, rendering him blind in one eye.

While the state government hasn’t commented on the issue of banning pellet guns, the police and CRPF have opposed any move to ban their use – saying the weapon was “far less harmful” compared to bullets.

Inspector general CRPF (J&K) Atul Karwal told The Wire that the use of pellet guns “saves lives”. “It is unfortunate that there have been eye injuries but the pellets are less lethal than getting hit by bullets,” he said.

To a question, the CRPF chief said a viable solution has to be arrived at before banning pellet guns, adding that if the government bans the weapon without providing an alternative option, the security forces would be forced to use bullets.

“Such a situation will increase the chances of fatalities,” he said.

A senior police official who asked not to be identified acknowledged the pellets have “devastated” many lives. “But what is the option with us? The pellet guns are far less dangerous than live ammunition,” he said.