Fateh Kadal left 32-yr-old Nusrat partially blinded

Srinagar, Oct 19: Thirty-two-year-old Nusrat lost her right eye to the pellets fired by the government forces during the Fateh Kadal encounter on Wednesday.

On the fateful day of October 17, Nusrat had been breastfeeding her daughter in her room when the gunfight between trapped militants and the government forces was going on.

She said she heard the bursting of a tear-gas canister, and police were chasing the protesting boys, prompting her to stand up to close the window.

“My daughter, Madiha, was in my lap, when I heard the noise and ran to close the window. I thought my daughter will get hurt if something comes in through the window. But I didn’t know my motherly concern will make me the target,” she recalls.

“I saw policemen at a distance of 25 feet. Within a fraction of a second, they fired pellets at me,” Nusrat told The Kashmir Monitor, holding back her tears.

Bouncing of the window, pellets hit her in the eye.

“My eye was profusely bleeding, and I tried to cover it with my right hand, but my hand was flooded with blood and I fainted,” she said.

Nusrat was immediately rushed to the nearby SMHS Hospital.

Bilal Ahmad Pandith, her husband, said, “She had already under gone one surgery in which only one pellet was removed but there are many more still inside her eye. The doctors suggest a second surgery on October 22.”

Bilal, in a grief-stricken tone, said his wife was mentally disturbed from the incident, as she could not bear that she is blinded.

“We hope that her eye sight comes back after second surgery as there are very less chances that she may be able to see again with her right eye,” lamented Bilal.

Nusrat while talking to her brother and tears tumbling from her eyes, said, “Bayamaichuinighashiachan, be kyakari (brother I don’t have light in my eye, what will I do?).”