An 18-month-old baby was among more than 50 persons injured by pellets and bullets in south Kashmir’s Shopian and Kulgam districts on Sunday during clashes between locals and security forces following an encounter with militants in Batagund village.
Health officials of Shopian and Kulgam said that they received 51 people wounded by pellets and bullets in the two district hospitals following clashes that erupted after security forces killed six militants in Shopian. Batagund is a border village in Shopian which connects with Kulgam district.
Medical superintendent of district hospital Kulgam, GM Bhat said that they received 15 injured persons, six with bullet injuries and nine with pellet wounds. One teenager was brought dead to the hospital.
“Of the nine injured by pellets, one was a girl of age 1.5 -2 years. She had a pellet injury in one eye,” Bhat said.
The girl was identified as Hiba Nisar. It was not clear how she received a pellet injury.
Her photo with a single black mark on her eye lid and blushed cheeks was tweeted by moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Medical superintendent of Shopian district hospital, Zahoor Ahmad said that 36 persons came to the hospital with bullet and pellet injuries.
A police spokesman said that around the encounter site one injured individual identified as Nouman Ashraf Bhat of Bolous Kulgam was referred to the hospital where he succumbed. Four others injured in the incident are reportedly stable, he said.
