MUMBAI: A huge majority of those who received eye injuries due to gun pellets in Srinagar between July and November in 2016 have suffered some degree of vision loss. About 80% of them have vision limited to “counting fingers”, according to a review research paper on 777 eye operations carried out during this period.
The review strongly advised against the use of pellet guns on civilians. It said the injuries imposed a “significant physical, emotional, and socio-economic burden” on society and the patients (mostly males in the 20-29 age group) because of the poor vision, high cost of medical care and long-term rehabilitation.
One of the main authors of the paper, published in ‘The Indian Journal of Ophthalmology’, is Mumbai-based retina surgeon Dr S Natrajan. He had travelled to Srinagar five times in 2016 to operate on those injured by pellets, along with a doctor each from New Delhi and Chennai. Their visits came in the aftermath of the standoff between protestors, who were throwing stones, and the security forces who retaliated by shooting pellets.
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