80% of pellet gun victims in Kashmir suffered some degree vision loss

A large number of people were injured in a clash between protesters and security forces in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir in 2016. As a result, around 80 per cent of people lost their sight, the Times of India Reported.

In 2016, between July and September, people who suffered partial vision loss from pellet guns lost their sight from 'finger counting.

A research paper says that 80% of people can only see enough to count their fingers. This background discourages the use of pellet guns against civilians. The report also stated that these injuries impose a "significant physical, emotional, and socioeconomic burden" on society and patients (mostly men ages 20 to 29) due to poor vision, high cost of medical care, and long-term rehabilitation.

One of the main authors of this research paper published in The Indian Journal of Ophthalmology is Dr S Natrajan, a Mumbai-based retinal surgeon. He had gone to Srinagar five times in 2016 for the operation of those injured with pellet guns. He was accompanied by doctors from Delhi and Chennai.

Most of the patients (98.7%) underwent surgery on the day of admission or the following day. The three surgeons treated more than 777 patients, of whom more than 550 received major eye surgery and more than 370 vitreoretinal surgery. The report also stated that the medical response was "unusual."

"By comparison, 797 serious eye injuries were reported in the Iraq war between 2003 and 2005, of which 116 people had their eyes removed. A report from the British Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan showed a total of 63 cases of eye injuries from 2004 to 2008".

The call, which came from the NGO, said in the article, 'In the war in Iraq between 2003 and 2005, 797 people suffered serious eye injuries, out of which 116 patients lost their eyes. Whereas reports from the British Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan put a total of 63 cases of eye injuries from 2004 to 2008.

Dr. Natrajan said that he had been approached by the Pune-based NGO Borderless World Foundation to help patients in Srinagar. He said, 'I took two doctors with me who wanted to go to Kashmir in this uncertain time. These doctors were Dr Syed Asghar Hussain of Optimus Maqbool Hospital in Chennai and Kinshuk Marwah of New Delhi.

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