Srinagar, April 08 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, medical
evidence is mounting to show the devastating effects like blindness of
eye injuries caused by metal pellets fired from shotguns by Indian
troops on protesters.
The ongoing use of the indiscriminate pellet guns has blinded 1,314
people in occupied Kashmir since 2016 alone. The so-called non-lethal
weapon has also caused deaths since it was introduced in the territory
during the public uprising of 2010.
A number of empirical studies conducted on Kashmiri victims of the
weapon recently published in international scientific journals
emphasised the irreversible nature of damage caused to their eyesight.
“Pellet injuries in eye causes serious visual decline due to vitreous
hemorrhage, cataract and retinal detachment,” states a research paper
titled Management of Ocular Pellet Injury published in Global Journal of
Medical Research (US).
The study, first since 2016 when mass scale pellet injuries were
caused in Kashmir, has been carried out by doctors from an eye hospital
in Amritsar on pellet victims visiting from Kashmir for treatment.
According to this study, chances of regaining normal vision in a pellet
victim eye were minimal.
Another study titled ‘Pellet Gun Fire Injuries in Kashmir Valley –
Cause of Ocular Morbidity’ has documented how chances of improvement of
vision “remained poor despite development of advanced micro-surgical
techniques”. The findings were published in Journal of Evolution of
Medical and Dental Sciences.
Researchers found over 50 percent of eyes injured by pellets “had
only perception of light” at the time of presentation in the hospital,
“reflecting the severe nature of trauma caused by gun pellets”. After
multiple surgical interventions, the final corrected vision remained
“unchanged” in about 35 percent of victims, researchers found.
“About 50 percent of the cases had final corrected visual acuity less
than 6/60” according to the study, meaning the person is able to see
something at only 6 meters what someone with standard vision could see
from 60 meters away.
An earlier study published in international journal of Medical
Science and Public Health found that only 16 percent of people who had
been hit by pellets in eyes had vision more than 20/40, meaning “vision
half good as normal”.
The rest, 84 percent pellet victims, had blindness of varying
degrees. One in three could not see beyond movement of hands in front of
their injured eye. An article published in Indian Journal of Medical
Ethics in 2016, quoting from various clinical studies on pellet injuries
concludes that the weapon was “far from being a benign non-lethal
weapon” and has “far-reaching human costs”.
Since the widespread protests sparked by the killing of BurhanWani in
July 2016, some 1253 victims of eye injuries caused by pellet guns were
treated at SMHS Hospital Srinagar. The use of pellet guns causing “dead
eye epidemic” in Kashmir in 2016 caused an international outrage.
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