SHRC sends notices to DC, SSP Shopian over grave pellet injury to 20 month old Hiba

Srinagar : State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) chief Justice (Rtd) Bilal Nazki today issued notice to the superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner Shopian to file a detailed compliance report as to how the right eye of 20-month-old Hiba Nisar got ruptured due to pellets.

The SHRC notice to the SSP and DC Shopian came in response to a petition filed by the chairman International Forum for Justice and Human Rights Muhammad Ahsan Untoo under case number SHRC/404/SPN/2018. Hiba Nisar, a 20-month-old girl suffered grave pellet injuries during forces action at Shopian when she was in her mother’s lap.

The pellets, according to the petitioner, have ruptured the eye-ball of the girl’s right eye and she has to undergo a series of surgeries to regain her vision. The petitioner said that the chance of Hiba regaining her vision in right eye seems bleak given the nature of the injury she has suffered.

Born in March 2017, Hiba, was wither her mother when government forces while trying to quell the protestors, pumped her with pellets. Earlier, in Batagund Shopian, six militants had been killed in an encounter with the forces. Hiba’s father is a labourer who works hard to feed his family. Writhing in pain, Hiba has become the symbol of pellet horror after Insha-who lost eye sight in 2016 after pellets damaged both her eyes. “Yes, she is obviously symbol of pellet horror in Kashmir,” says petitioner. (KNS)