South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

Srinagar, Jul 23 2016 :  The injured 5-year-boy Nasir Ahmad Khan said that Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) slapped  and kicked him. The little boy, Nasir, admitted on Bed number 26 at SMHS hospital in Srinagar  whenever he wakes up, he is panic stricken. He yells ‘army ha aayi, army ha aayi! Yim ha layan mea! (Indian Army has come, army has come, to beat me),” says his father Mohammad Altaf, a resident of Kokernag of south Kashmir Islamabad.
5-year-old Nasir was injured when he was hit in his eye by both J&K Police and CRPF men with a sharp object in South Kashmir is admitted at SHMS Hospital in Srinagar with left eye completely damaged. He was taken away from his mother's lap and hit by a sharp object in his eye after CRPF men said that "he abused us so he deserves it". Both his parents were beaten with his mother having head injures is currently admitted at a hospital in Islamabad  (Anantnag)
Every now and then he wakes up terrified and seems to be trying to free himself from shackles. Finally he ends up clinging to his father.
As I tried to flee, something like needles hit my eye. These are the words of five-year-old Nasir Ahmad Khan from South Kashmir’s Kokernag area, who is battling pellet injuries in his eyes, at SMHS hospital here.
The sadistic, malicious injury inflicted on a 5-year-old boy by a  Indian CRPF soldier has convinced many in the SMHS hospital, that India has adopted the Israeli policy of systematic genocide and disabling of every Kashmiri.
Nasir was rushed to the hospital on Friday July 22 , 2016 afternoon.  While doctors who examined him said they can’t predict the nature of the injury right now, the victim is writhing in pain.  Talking to media persons inside the hospital, Nasir’s mother said she had gone to visit a relative at district hospital Islamabad.
 “As we came out from the hospital I was hit by a stone and fell unconscious. Some people supported me. As I was regaining my conscience, I heard people shouting ‘whose boy is this’,” she recalled. Next, she said, she saw blood oozing out of her son’s eye.
 “The people who brought him here said he was beaten by CRPF men. His clothes had been torn and he was crying. I cried after seeing his condition,” she said.
 “I don’t know what hit my eye. I just felt as if a needle hit me and I started feeling intense pain,” Nasir said.
He said he was holding hand of her mother when she fell unconscious. “…they (CRPF men) came and caught hold of me. They started abusing and beating me,” he said.
Nasir Ahmad, five years old, was returning home with his father and grandmother from Islamabbad, where they had gone to buy medicines for the child’s eye-infection and for the ailing grandmother. Altaf said that on their way back they came across protests taking place at Sherpora. Altaf sought shelter for his mother, and while he looked for it he told his son to stay put in an alley. “I rushed my old mother to a relatively safer place and asked Nasir to sit in one place until I return. I feared he might be hurt while I was moving around with my mother in that chaos,” Altaf said.
When he returned, he couldn’t believe his eyes. His son was lying on the ground and rubbing his eyes. He was sobbing in pain. “He was literally biting the dust due to the pain. His eyes were burning like charcoal. There was blood all over his eye,” recalled Altaf.
Nasir was rushed to a nearby Islamabad hospital from where he was referred to SMHS. It was here that he revealed what had happened. “At the hospital he told the doctor that a CRPF man had first inserted sand into his eye, and then injected a needle into the eye. After that he slapped him. There were slap marks on his face,” Altaf said.
Altaf, 28, is a father of three children. He said he was worried about how he will face his wife, who does not know that her son has suffered an injury that can damage his eyesight. “I don’t know how I will face my wife as my 5-year-old son was absolutely all right when I left my village,” Altaf said, tears rolling down his face.
Altaf is also concerned about the eyesight of his child. “Doctors have already operated on his eye, and they are going to operate again, as he has shown no signs of improvement,” Altaf rued.
As Altaf was narrating the episode, people from the nearby beds and other sections had come to listen with growing horror. 34-year-old Shameema who was accompanying her pellet-injured brother, said that she had children as young as Nasir, and that seeing kids as young as five being targeted by government forces was beyond belief. “This is systematic genocide; they are targeting our children to finish our race,” she said.
A few men seconded her and called it a policy on the lines of Israel. “They are clearly employing the tactics of Israel, as this is what they do in Gaza: kill small children so that the entire race is finished,” said the group of men among which were volunteers working at the hospital.
“They are on a mission to disable every Kashmiri. It is clearly a ploy taken from Israel,” said an elderly man, Mohamad Amin.
Altaf said that many people at the hospital gave him solace and courage to not lose heart. “But you tell me, how can someone be strong when the apple of his eye is hurt? He is just five years of age. Who on earth hurts kids of his age?”