They received bullets while taking brother to hospital

Srinagar, Jan 10: The bullet pierced through 23-year-old Ashiq’s abdomen, hit his cousin Showkat in the arm and then landed straight into his brother Jehangir’s shoulder —the bullet is still there.

Jehangir is admitted in Bone and Joints Hospital while his brother Aashiq is undergoing treatment at SMHS Hospital here.

Jehangir Ahmad Mir, 26, was standing outside his home at Nownagri, Pulwama, when he was allegedly fired upon by a soldier in his arm. The burly young man fell unconscious. There were two more youths who received injuries. And when Jehangir’s family heard about the incident, they tried to rush him to the Pulwama hospital in a sumo car. But it was not to be.

“I was standing outside home at a medical shop; there were three more people. We had heard there was something wrong at Bubgam (Chandgam). But our village was quite normal. Then all of a sudden bullets hit us,” Jehangir said, in a low tone. He can barely speak.  He has a bullet still in his shoulder. His torso is motionless. He feels suffocated to talk.

Jehangir’s relatives said a person came out of the army ambulance and fired indiscriminately on Jehangir and others at their native village in Nownagri. “There were already several people injured in Chandgam, where the encounter between Army and militants had already ended. The soldiers entered our village and resorted to unprovoked firing, injuring several of our family members,” a close relative of Jehangir said.

They said when they drove Jehangir and other two people in a Sumo for treatment to main town Pulwama, more bullets were waiting for them. This was the moment when a single bullet ripped trough many a souls at Pulwama Chowk.

“When we drove almost seven kilometers from Nownagri, soldiers travelling in an army ambulance showered bullets on the Sumo,” Jehangir’s brother Ashiq alleged.

He said first the army ambulance did not let them pass through the road and when the Sumo overtook, they were answered with bullets. “The personnel punctured the tyres of the sumo and then showered bullets, in which Jehangir received two more bullets, while I and my two cousins, Showkat and Gowhar were also injured in the firing. My sister barely escaped,” he added.
Gowhar and Showkat were also admitted in SMHS and B&J hospitals but have been now discharged.

At SKIMS, Soura, a few critically injured are admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Hospital authorities did not allow this reporter to enter the unit.

At SMHS and B&J hospitals, Jehangir’s relatives are poignant.  He has already undergone two surgeries. Medicos have advised that the bullet in his shoulder would only be removed when rest of the wounds heal.

Around a dozen civilians were injured in separate firing incidents at two different locations in Pulwama after security forces allegedly resorted to indiscriminate firing on the protesters.

The first incident of firing took place in Bubgam (Chandgam) village, where an encounter between militants and forces had taken place on December 28, while the second firing incident took place at main Chowk Pulwama on the same day when protests broke out in the area while the injured were being shifted to the District Hospital there.

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