A civilian was killed while more than 30 others were injured after government forces opened indiscriminate fire on civilians trying to reach the encounter site in Frisal area of Kulgam district, Rising Kashmir reported.
According to the doctors at Anantnag district hospital, more than 15 people had bullet injuries and other had either pellet injuries or injured during the protest.
The encounter concluded on Sunday morning in Frisal area of Kulgam district concluded eight lives, including four militants, two Army personnel and two civilian. Soon after the news of encounter was out, hundreds of people tried to march towards the encounter site.
Kashmiri civilians claimed that the unarmed protesters were greated by lathi charges, gun fires and pellet guns.
“As we were trying to reach the encounter site the police men came charging at us and started firing live ammunition. I thought it was the end of my life and many others,” a young boy was quoted by Rising Kashmir as saying.
“They were targeting us with bullets above our waists. There were no warning shots or any tear gas canisters fired but plain bullets aimed at killing us,” Kashmir Reader quoted a protestor as saying.
Multiple report suggest that government forces even used pellet guns, which resulted in eye injury of more than 1,500 during the 2016 unrest.
Two teenagers, Saqib Ahmed and Aqib Ahmed, injured by the pellets were brought to Srinagar’s general specialty SMHS hospital from South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Sunday.
Saqib had pellets perforating his right eye while Aqib is from Noor Bagh area of the same district and is hit in his left eye with pellets.
“When a pellet enters an eye, the perforation and the heat generated by the velocity damages the internal and external vital areas of vision so badly that it is very difficult to restore the vision to pre-injury level,” a doctor at SMHS Hospital was quoted by Kashmir Global as saying.
SMHS Hospital had already forwarded a list of at least 850 pellet victims with varying degrees of vision impairment to the state government upon its directions.
Meanwhile, the separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, had called for a complete shutdown on Monday and a “Kulgam Chalo” march on Wednesday against the killings.
The shutdown affected the normal life in Kashmir. All shops, commercial establishments, education institutions, and petrol stations were closed in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley.
