Kashmir’s Insha Mushtaq, blinded by pellets, shines light on dark world of victims
Insha Mushtaq, who was blinded by pellet guns during 2016 protests in Kashmir, has finally received government-sanctioned financial aid to establish an LPG distributorship after a decade-long delay. While she acknowledges the government's support, she continues to advocate for a nationwide ban on the use of pellet guns for crowd control.
Why it matters
The case highlights the long-term socio-economic challenges faced by victims of non-lethal crowd control weapons and underscores the ongoing national debate regarding the ethics and legality of using pellet guns in civil unrest.
The eyes are covered with cotton balls and dark, large sunglasses hiding them. These images of Insha Mushtaq, a resident of Shopian’s Seadow, became iconic in 2016, as this Class 8 student took a barrage of pellets, damaging both her eyes. Ten years on, Ms. Mushtaq has become a face of resilience, as she continued her studies despite hardships and now managed to get an LPG distributorship to sustain the livelihood.
What fast-peddled the LPG agency for Ms. Mushtaq is the recent agitation of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and the use of pellets on protesters at Jantar Mantar, renewing focus on this non-lethal means of crowd control introduced in 2010 in Kashmir first.
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