As the number of protesters suffering eye injuries in Kashmir clashes touched hundred, the Health Ministry on Wednesday sent a three-member team of eye specialists from the AIIMS in New Delhi to Srinagar to assist the State government in treating the injured.
An official statement from the Ministry said the doctors were sent following a request by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her predecessor Omar Abdullah, who urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send specialist doctors to the Valley.
“Health Minister J.P. Nadda has directed a three-member high-level team of eye specialists from the AIIMS in New Delhi to be sent to Jammu and Kashmir to assist the State in providing medical care to the persons injured in the ongoing law and order problem,” an official statement said.
Mr. Nadda later tweeted: “We have sent a team of senior eye experts/specialists from the AIIMS to J&K to assist the State. The team has reached Srinagar.”
Healing touchEarlier in the day, Mr. Abdullah said it was time to reach out to the Valley with a healing touch and requested the Prime Minister to send specialist doctors to the Valley for treating the injured.
“Hon (Honourable) @narendramodi ji. After Kerala fire you carried a plane load of burn specialists with you. Please send eye/trauma specialists to Kashmir,” he tweeted.
“Please don’t let the fact that these youngsters people have been injured in protests stop us from giving the best care possible. Thank you jenab,” he wrote in another tweet.
CPI(M) MLA Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami had also earlier said the Centre should have dispatched doctors and medicines instead of more troops.
Violent clashes have erupted in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on Friday last. Curfew has been imposed in many parts of the Valley even as the death toll in clashes between protestors and security forces climbed to 35.
Hundreds of people have been injured in the clashes, many of them in the eye because of excessive use of pellet guns by security forces to control the protesters.
After Kashmir’s violent unrest in 2010, security forces started using pellet guns as a “non-lethal” measure to avoid civilian fatalities.
A single pellet gun cartridge carries 500 pieces of tiny metal laced with gun powder. On pulling the trigger, the gun sprays the hot metal pieces haphazardly. These pellets can pierce the skull and eyes, leading to blinding other severe complications.
“If you are within the 10-metre range you can get fatally injured,” a senior police officer said.
