NOTWITHSTANDING the government claims that pellet gun was non-lethal, medicos treating the pellet victims in the summer Capital find it deadlier than bullets.
 The doctors said not only the treatment was more complicated than that for a bullet injury, but that the damaged caused by the pellets was even more killing.
 Since the introduction of pump action guns or pellet guns past week, some 100 persons have reportedly fallen prey to the pellets fired allegedly by police and paramilitary CRPF while the authorities insist the weapon is non-lethal.
 While one of wounded succumbed to the injuries, the condition of most others continues to be critical.
 Given the seriousness of the injuries, most of the injured have been admitted at Srinagar based hospitals: the SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura, Valley’s sole tertiary care hospital and the SHMS Hospital.
 The doctors reveal gory tales of the patients as they battle for life.

THE CASES
 Teenager Aijaz Ahmed Lone son of Muhammad Subhan of Anchar, Soura was hospitalized on August 26 under MRD number 625311 after the CRPF allegedly fired the pellets on protesters there.
 The patient with pellet injury was rushed to the operation theater where he was found having multiple perforations.
 “He had a spleenic injury, multiple perforations in small gut stomach and haematoma around left kidney. Besides he had lung injuries on both sides,” said a team of surgeons who operated upon the patient.
 “These perforations in small and large gut required closure…Then haemotoma was removed and both lungs were also operated upon,” the surgeons said adding “bilateral thorocotomy was also done.”
 While the other organs could be saved, the doctors had to remove the badly damaged spleen.
 In another case, Khan Asif Ahmed son of Nazir Ahmed of Buchpora was admitted under MRD No 00625239.
 Khan was operated upon for the injury which, as per the doctors, “shattered his kidneys, left lung and left large gut.”
 The doctors fear such cases won’t be able to live a normal life even if they recover.

SMALL WOUND SHOCK
 The pellet cases have shocked the doctors because apparently the victims don’t have any big wounds like that in case of a bullet injury.
 “Pellets apparently go unnoticed. The entry mark is so small that if patient doesn’t complain of pain the wound could be neglected and ultimately prove more lethal,” said a medico.
 “The wound is barely of the size of mosquito bite,” he added.
 But the damage is big. The SKIMS medicos said the pellets have resulted in “devastating injuries to patients as almost all their organs were involved.”

PELLET VS BULLET
 The doctors in trouble-torn Kashmir have over 20 years of experience in treating the firearm cases.
 This makes them observe that the pellets are deadlier.
 “A bullet hits one or two organs but a pellet damages multiple organs that too with multiple perforations,” said a surgeon at SHMS Hospital in Srinagar.

‘ZIONIST ASSAULT’
 Kashmiri medicos working abroad are equally upset at the pellet assault on unarmed civilians in their homeland.
 “Such weapons have been tried on Palestenians by Islrealies. Now, Kashmiris seem to be the latest victims,” a medico working in the Middle-East, recently poked on his facebook wall.
 The doctors community has linked the pellet attack with the cluster bombing, the US forces did in the Afghanistan war of 2001.
 “Pellet gun is simply the miniature version of the cluster bombing because the results are equally killing,” said a retired professor of Surgery who recently came across such cases at SKIMS.

KILLING ALTERNATIVES
 Surgeries of the pellet wounded, as per the medicos, are so complicated that it not only takes several hours more as compared to other fire arm injuries, but requires presence of multiple super-specialists.
 “The surgeries are being conducted under the multiple disciplinary approach whereby several super specialists are required in the life saving attempt,” said an anestheologist.
 Operation theater insiders said that the surgeons are so furious with the assault that recently a senior specialist observed: “If they(forces) mean deadly damage. It’s better to use grenades or bullets than pellets. At least that way the chances of recovery could be more.”

‘NLW TAG’
 A police official said the pellet gun was turning to be their choice because of the Non-Lethal Weapon (NLW) tag attached with the weapon.
 “In a single fire of the NLW we can target dozens in a mob and neutralize them for months,” he said.

THE FISSION
 The armed forces introduced the pellet guns following mount in fatalities in the police and paramilitary CRPF firing on protesters during the past over two months of unrest which till date claimed at least 64 lives.
 A SKIMS officials confirmed that atleast 38 pellet victims have been treated at the hospital while one of them died.
 On August 19, paramilitary CRPF fired pellets in Sopur on protesters in which four persons were injured. One of the injured, 19-year old Mudasir Nazir Hajam, succumbed the next day.
 Another injured, Danish Ahmad Shiekh of Tarzoo Sopur, lost his eyesight  in the pellet fire.
 On August 22, police and CRPF used pump action shots on protesters at Chattabal in the summer capital injuring at least a dozen of them.
 On August 24, seven persons were injured at Soura.
 The forces also fired the pellet gun shots at protesters in Bemina, Rainawari, Soura and several other localities  of the summer capital past week injuring at least two dozen persons.
 A number of protesters from Islamabad is south Kashmir and Varmul in the north were also injured in the pellet action.
 On August 30, police fired pellets on carom playing youth at Maisuma. While five boys were wounded, one of them, a close relative of senior separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, is on a life support system battling for life at SMHS Hospital.

CONSPIRED TO KILL…

*  Pellets damage multiple organs of a victim

* Treatment, surgery more complicated than other firearm cases

*Requires presence of more surgeons, which means not many injured can be treated in one go

*Internal damages are deadly but wounds outside are so small that it could go unnoticed

*The entry mark is so small that if patient doesn’t complain of pain the wound could be neglected being taken as a mosquito bite and subsequently result in patient’s death due to internal injuries

* Chances of total recovery are bleak
  (Source SKIMS doctors)

Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST