india

Updated: Dec 12, 2018 23:58 IST

Doctors at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital on Wednesday successfully removed a pellet lodged in the right eye of an 18-month-old girl, the youngest victim of pellet firing by security forces to disperse protesters in the Valley.

The girl, Hiba Nisar,was injured on November 25. Wednesday’s was the second surgery she underwent.

Doctors who operated on her aren’t optimistic of her regaining full vision.

“We removed the pellet but we can’t say anything about the recovery. She has a badly injured eye and it is difficult to predict whether she will regain vision in the eye or not,” said Sabia Rashid, the ophthalmologist who operated upon the toddler.

Hiba Nisar was among the 50 people injured by pellets and bullets in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on November 25 during clashes between locals and security forces following an encounter with militants in Batagund village.

“As security forces fired a tear gas, my wife rushed Hiba and our five-year-old son outside to save them from choking. As she opened the door, a burst of pellets hit her hand and one got stuck in Hiba’s right eye,” said Nisar Ahmad, Hiba’s father, who works as a labourer on apple farms.

“Doctors will tell us about our daughter’s eye situation tomorrow. She is so small and is unable to bear her pain. We hope she will get cured,” added a distraught Nisar Ahmad.

More than 6,000 people were injured by pellets including 1,100 those who sustained eye injuries in the months of unrest which followed Burhan Wani’s death in an encounter with security forces in 2016.

Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who had visited Hiba’s family at the hospital, strongly demanded an immediate ban on the use of pellet guns.

“Heart wrenching to see baby Hiba under the influence of anaesthesia as she undergoes a second eye surgery while her parents cry. Such extreme cruelty! Ask government of India to stop the tyranny of the pellet gun on Kashmiris,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on a social media website.