18-month-old pellet gun victim Hiba: Human rights defenders seek NHRC intervention

By Our Representative
Human rights defenders Syed Mujtaba Hussian and Mirza Jahanzeb Beg have filed a case with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against an 18-month-old pellet gun victim Hiba Nisar. Hiba was with her mother inside their house at Kapran village in south Kashmir when pellets hit the infant in her right eye.
According to the victim’s mother Fancy, they were forced to leave the home due to suffocation caused by teargas shells fired by the forces. When she was on her door, forces fired pellets on them. Fancy covered Hiba’s face with her hand but couldn’t save her from the pellets. She too received pellets on her left hand while making an unsuccessful attempt to protect her infant daughter.
The activists, who have also written to the Special Rapporteurs to the United Nations and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the baby is the "youngest victim of oppression" adding, "Pellet guns are used nowhere on civilian population in this world except Kashmir."
They said, "On one hand the government claims to protect the girl child under the schemes like ‘Beti bachao Beti padao’ but on the other hand there are more than 50 girl pellet victims since 2016, the most recent being 18 month old Hiba. Expressing a deep sense of loss for the continuing theatre of killings, pellet injuries and atrocities on civilians."
"NHRC should seek Action Taken Report, even as initiating an independent investigation against the authorities involved, and order compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to the child victim. The state government may also be directed to bear all the medical expenses of the child victim", they added.

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