Security forces on Saturday evening targeted a mentally challenged man with pellets and also allegedly assaulted him resulting in brain injuries and damage to his both eyes.
Showkat Ahmed Misger, the ‘mott’ (insane) as he was called in Safa Kadal area was brought to SMHS Hospital in a profusely bleeding state. With pellet injuries on face, skull and eyes, the injured Misger kept shouting in pain.
Doctors said the middle aged man had suffered brain damage due to pellets. In addition, they said, pellets had damaged both his eyes as well as perforated his chest.
“He has contusions (bleeding and tissue damage) in brain and lungs, the pellets perforating his eyes also,” a doctor attending to him and examining his CT Scan said.
“Although he is stable but we are keeping him under observation. He is badly injured,” doctors at SMHS Hospital said.
At the Trauma Theatre of the hospital, Showkat refused to settle down for a surgical intervention. The agitated and horrified man wanted to leave hospital while he vomited due to injuries.
“He is mentally unsound. It will not be possible to give him first aid under local anesthesia,” doctors said.
“We will need to get his internal bleeds to stop before starting a surgical intervention on his eyes,” eye-surgeons at the hospital said. They further said that CT Scan images revealed that two pellets each were embedded in his eyes.
The team of doctors decided to wait for his condition to ‘stabilize’ before starting surgical interventions on various injured organs.
A man identifying himself as Ghulam Rasool Misger, uncle of the victim, said “He used to sit on the shop fronts all day, always. But the irony is that forces who are regularly deployed in the area and know him as mentally unfit person today showered a volley of pellets at Showkat.” He also alleged that the mentally challenged man was assaulted and hit on head.
“Nobody was allowed to lift him. Finally, his cousin Hilal Ahmed went to lift Showkat to transport him to hospital, and he too was fired with pellets on his legs,” Misger further said. Misger alleged that forces have wreaked havoc in old city areas.
The incident was reported to have taken place at main chowk Safa Kadal.
Officials at SMHS Hospital said 35 new admissions of firearm injury victims were made on Friday and 20 new admissions of the injured were made on Saturday. While this report was being filed, many freshly injured were being brought to the hospital from Srinagar and adjoining areas for treatment.
Of the freshly injured, five victims had received pellet injuries in their eyes and were receiving preliminary treatment at the Trauma Theatre of SMHS Hospital.
On Friday, 17 people were admitted at SMHS Hospital with pellet injuries in eyes.
