19-Month-Old Hiba’s Pellet-Inflicted Eye Brings Tears In All Eyes

SRINAGAR — Blinded by turmoil: Pellets continue to wreak havoc in Kashmir as the list of victims keep mounting. Now images of a 19-month old baby, Hiba Jan with pellets in her right eye has sparked outrage on social media.  Hiba is the youngest pellet victim in Kashmir.

In ward number 8 of Srinagar’s State Hospital, Masrat Jan is trying to ease Hiba’s and her own pain as she is told her daughter may not see ever again through her one eye.

A pellet has made a hole right in the middle of Hiba’s eyeball, according to doctors attending on her.

On Sunday government forces fired teargas shells and pellets “indiscriminately” in south Kashmir’s Kapran village to foil protests which had broken out there after an encounter in the village had left six militants and an Army soldier dead.

When toxic tear smoke entered houses and began choking little Hiba, Masrat in desperation decided to run for safety with Hiba and her 5-year-old son. Her husband, a labourer by profession, was away on work.

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“We were sitting inside our house. However, the smoke was so suffocating that it began choking Hiba and it was when I decided to move out. As soon I opened the door of my house police stationed outside fired at us. I pushed my son to one side and covered my daughter’s face with my hand,” said Masrat Jan.

She says while showing her right hand dotted with pellet marks, that if she had not placed her hand on her daughters face, the pellets would have damaged her both the eyes and face.

The ophthalmology ward of SMHS hospital is overwhelmed with patients, most of them with bloody eyes. At least 20 people were injured on Sunday clashes between government forces and protesters in Kapran alone.

“We are very poor, we don’t have enough money to buy medicines. For God sake tell me where should I go with my daughter,” says Masrat whose husband Nisar Ahmad sits there trying to console her.

“We were brought to the hospital by our neighbours because I fell unconscious after seeing blood oozing from my daughter’s eye,” says Masrat.

According to doctors, Hiba has been operated once to stop the bleeding from the eye and will be operated again.

“We can’t say anything this time about her eyesight, let’s wait for at least 6 days, we have to operate her multiple times and will see the results,” said medical superintendent of SMHS hospital, Dr Saleem Tak, said.

Meanwhile, the images of Hiba flashed on social media have sparked an outrage with many Kashmiris calling it another low in state’s anti-militancy operations.

“She was hit by pellets even when she was inside her home. She might lose her eyesight also. Her crime? Well, she is a Kashmiri. And you know what, nobody will ever be held accountable,” wrote Samiya Latief, a Kashmiri journalist based in Delhi on her Twitter account. 

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“A POEM FOR BABY HIBA No It’s a lie Pellet wound in your eyes can’t deprive you of vision as sleep-torture can’t deprive me of my creative senses! Just open your eyes see I’ve something for you it’s a teddy bear, Hiba? Cool! Conflicts die Babies survive to Get well, beta!” Wrote another Netizen Habib Sulemani.

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Another user Khushboo while sharing a picture of Hiba Jan wrote:  “This cuteness deserves only love, not the wounds of conflict and terror. Baby Hiba Jan is maybe unaware about, why she is facing this situation and why her eye is covered with bandages. But why the enemies of peace can’t stop, even after knowing everything?”

Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq while sharing the picture of Hiba Jan wrote on his Twitter account: ? “Baby Hiba with pellet wounds in her eye! How it hurts to see her like this. Pray for her speedy recovery! The price that even our babies are paying as the conflict continues.”

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“A 15-year-old girl dead with two bullets in her head, and an 18-month-old with pellets in her eyes. I can’t even begin to write how much this pains and scares me as a mother!” wrote Essar Batool.

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