Pellet Plight: Aspired to be a religious scholar, Hilal yearns to see again!

This is the third video of Pellet Plight series featuring Mu’Azzam Bhat as the host in a Live Interview with Hilal, yet another youth from the unfortunate lot of pellet victims of Kashmir.

The video series is an initiative started by Peer Viqar Ul Aslam, a Technology Journalist working for Morocco World News.

The live video series tries to explore the agony of the victims and how painful it feels to realize that a single pellet shot could be so devastating both physically and emotionally.

The victim being interviewed in the video is 17 years old boy named Hilal Ahmad (name changed) from Tangmarg area of Kashmir.

Sitting besides his mother, Hilal says that he was sitting inside his brother’s shop when a security forces vehicle stopped on the main road and started firing pellets without any provocation. He ran but not before the deadly pellets had damaged his eyes.

Later, he was rushed to SMHS Hospital Srinagar in a friend’s vehicle.

After a brief examination of his eyes, the doctors revealed that both his eyes had been damaged.

Hilal says that he can only see with his left eye to some extent while he can not see anything with his right eye even after undergoing three surgeries.

With this tragic incident, he also missed his 10th Class examination and an academic year.

On being asked what he aspired to become, he replied that he wanted to be a religious scholar and memorise the holy Quran.

His mother, who sits by him with his picture taken years ago at Taj Mahal before being hit by pellets, broke down in tears while sharing that due to extreme poverty they couldn’t afford to take him outside the state for treatment and have spend everything they had on his treatment.

The brother of the victim, a mechanic by profession, has done everything what he possibly could to help his brother regain his eyesight. He even started working for double shifts but the costly treatment has demoralized him.

He says that he wanted Hilal to get higher education but after being hit in eyes by the pellets, their small world has come to a gloomy end shattering all the dreams that they had wished to come true for him.

The victim appealed to the government to ban the use of pellet guns immediately.

There are other pellet victims also whose heart-rending stories have remained unheard. We are going to continue, bringing more stories like these in this Pellet Plight video series.

These videos are shared from Peer Viqar Ul Aslam’s Facebook page with the hope to bring the victims some respite whether financial or emotional.

For now, we encourage you to watch the video to hear from the victim himself. Do share it on your social profiles also.