A 22-year-old man's scrotum and penis were ripped apart, and his anal region suffered severe injuries during police firing in Delhi's Mustafabad on Tuesday, doctors who treated him at Al Hind Hospital said

A 22-year-old man's scrotum and penis were ripped apart, and his anal region suffered severe injuries during police firing in Delhi's Mustafabad on Tuesday, doctors who treated him at Al Hind Hospital said. The man, Mohammad Imran, a welder, was to wed in May, his brother Ibrahim said. Imran's condition is stable and he is recuperating at LNJP Hospital, to which facility he was shifted the next morning.

"We are unsafe not just outside of the streets, but also inside our houses. I had come out of the house at around 5 pm to see what was all the commotion about. I was just trying to see what was happening when something struck my private parts and I started bleeding. I went home to check what had happened. That's when I realised my entire sack had had burst. I was bleeding profusely. It was a very deep wound, and it was paining like hell. I felt like I had died," Imran said.

He has four brothers and three sisters, and is one of the breadwinners of the family. He will not be able to work in the coming months due to the injury. "Kaam toh baad mein, pehle jaan bach jaaye uski (work comes later; first, his life should be saved)," his brother Ibrahim said. Besides the injury to his anal region, he has also suffered pellet injuries to his back, lathi marks, and smaller injuries to the head.

According to Shamshuddin, his father, who is a carpenter, he and his son were standing inside one of the lanes of Mustafabad, when the police starting shooting and releasing tear gas to quell the crowd. "It happened within seconds. He was just standing there when he shouted and fell down. His trousers had turned red. We rushed him to the house and realised that it was a big wound."

He also said that when he went to Urban Hospital, they refused to admit his son. He said, "They told me to go home. I told them that he had received many stitches, but they refused to admit him and asked me to leave immediately. Then we took him to LNJP Hospital." Imran is still admitted there.

Imran's mother, according to Ibrahim, is too much in shock to be able to talk. "She has been crying since the past two days. She hasn't eaten, she is just sitting in her room, crying and praying," he said. Ibrahim added that his mother's state was also due to the fact that Imran's wedding was to take place in the upcoming months.

"We had even decided on the month of May for his wedding. But now it will be very difficult. The wedding might not even happen. What if he doesn't recover? What if he can't have kids now?" Imran's father asked. Then he broke down. He said, "Main haath jod raha tha doctors ke saamne, mere bete ko theek kar dein (I was pleading with the doctors with folded hands to save my son). Earlier, he used to earn money and take care of us, but now we will have to fend for him and also take care of him."

The doctors, who treated him at Al Hind Hospital in the Old Mustafabad area, MA Anwar and Meraj, told this correspondent that they had immediately stitched the disfigured parts together to stop the bleeding. Afterwards, he was sent to another hospital in an ambulance.

"The wound looked as though his legs had been torn apart. He was bleeding profusely. We stitched those parts up to stop the bleeding. The injury is grievous in nature," said Anwar, adding, "It was as though some sharp object had been used to laterally cut his private parts from between." Doctors worked on Imran for over two hours.

He was brought to Al Hind Hospital on 25 February in the evening, which was the first day of major violence in Delhi. The ambulance came the next morning at 2 am to take him for further treatment.

Al Hind was not meant to be a hospital. It does not have the emergency medical facilities required to tend to serious patients. It was a small clinic run by Anwar and two other doctors and had to be converted into a hospital because of the high number of patients coming in and the rising number of casualties.

Anwar said that he had put over 25 stitches in Imran's disfigured anus region. From his anus to the scrotum, there is a 15-centimetre-long wound, according to his latest medical reports. "Only we know how we managed to put those stitches. We, as doctors, have seen people die, but treating this man was even more painful," Anwar added.

There have been several critical cases received at Al Hind Hospital, mostly people from the Mustafabad region. Within two days of the violence, there had been over 500 patients at Al-Hind, most of whom according to the chief doctor of the hospital had suffered severe bullet or pellet injuries. "Out of all the cases we have received, this was the worst. We have even received a case in which acid had been thrown at a three-month pregnant lady. A total of three cases of acid attacks have also been recorded," the doctor said.

According to the doctors at LNJP Hospital, something made a very deep wound in his anal region, but it is yet to be determined what the object was.

Even though Imran is now stable, he has suffered deep psychological scarring due to the incident. He said, "Only I know what I have been through. I will never get over this."

The Delhi Police on Thursday released details of 37 people killed in the recent riots in the northeastern part of the city, a day after the violence subsided. Among those who lost their lives is one police official, while the other 36 are civilians.

The majority of the victims (21) died of gunshot wounds, four each of "stabbing injuries" and "assault", three due to "assault with burns" while the cause of death was not known for four people.

Note: We made several attempts to reach the Station House Officer, Mustafabad, but to no avail. This piece will be updated with a police statement if an official responds.