A 13 year old boy injured in the summer unrest can barely talk even after three months of hospitalisation and 12 surgeries. Walking on his own has to wait for a few more months. Aliya Bashir reports.
Thirteen-year-old Aijaz vividly remembers the day when he ran towards his home, with his left hand pressed hard to his chest. A bullet fired by the CRPF had hit him. Blood was also oozing out from his chin where a teargas had hit him.
On August 5, 2010, when Kashmir was witnessing one of the fiercest unrest, curfew was revoked in Dariybal area of the Naid Kadal Srinagar. As the dusk was about to fall, Aijaz Ahmed Sheikh, along with his friends, was returning from private tuitions. On the way home he was hit by bullet and teargas shell leaving him in a pool of blood. He started to run for his life along with his school bag.
“That day I was walking towards home. Somehow the police started gazing at me and opened fired which hit me in the chest and a teargas hit my chin and I fell on road. But, I didn’t leave my courage and dragged myself towards the home,” Aijaz recalls.
Five months after the incident his head hangs low. He stammers and sighs frequently as he struggles to find words to explain his ailing condition. The shock and grief deeply embedded in his heart.
Caught up in his own miseries, Aijaz is a virtual prisoner in his own home. Once full of energy and enthusiasm, Aijaz would mostly be, during day time, with his friends; playing, enjoying life. Now he is dependent on others even to go out for a small stroll. He can’t venture out of his home on his own.
Aijaz survived miraculously after suffering multiple firearm injuries. Since then he has been in the hospital for more than three months where he had to undergo 12 surgeries. He was on the ventilator for one month. Aijaz has many visible marks all over his body. Doctors had to culture the skin on his broken chin and mouth with skin cells taken from is his different body parts.
His father, Muhammad Sidiq Sheikh, said that on that day curfew was lifted from their locality and people had come out of their homes. At 5:45 p.m, he heard some shots and while he was looking for Aijaz, he saw him running towards home.
“When I saw Aijaz screaming and running towards the home, I thought he was hit by a rubber bullet. But when I saw him injured in a bad condition, I went unconscious and did not remember anything while Aijaz was undergoing 21-hour long operation,” he said. “Aijaz is most dear to me among all children. He is too young to be bed-ridden.”
Sheikh, who works in Srinagar Municipal Committee (SMC), said, “Till I am alive I am ready to give my last drop of blood for my son. I am thankful to God that my son is alive. Wounds will heal. But no possession in world will replace a son.”
As a lot of money goes into Aijaz’s treatment the family’s financial condition has worsened. “Until now we had to spend around Rs 4 lakh on his surgeries and medicines. His condition was so bad that he had to be given 22 points of blood and three thousand glucose bottles. There were 30 stitches just around the mouth,” said Sheikh. Doctors say that he will have to undergo more surgeries.
Unable to come to terms to the plight of his son, Sheikh said that he had lost appetite and sleep, and interest in any worldly affair.
“Since the day he was injured Aijaz is scared whenever he hears any gunshots or teargas. He was very bold. But, that cruel day turned him into overnight slave,” Sheikh said.
However, Aijaz says he is “proud of his sacrifice”. “I do not regret it. The men in uniform are our enemies. We are fighting for our freedom,” he said.
When Aijaz was hit, he was studying in class 4th at New Bharat Public School and due to his ailing condition he was not able to appear in his exams. However the school promoted him to the next class on the basis of his previous academic performance.
