Riyaz Bhat
SRINAGAR
Like every Sunday, I left home to play a routine cricket match in Pulwama’s Lelhar ground. Everything was going nice and smooth before gunshots rang and triggered a riot run inside the ground.
A complete melee ensued. Everyone was running for their lives. I too ran. Within no time, forces showed up on the spot. In a flash, they let their guns to do all the talking. They started firing teargas canisters at civilians present in the playground.
While running, I could see how people were getting injured, falling, crying. It was a total mayhem. It was then a teargas shell hit me at my abdomen. I fell on the ground and fainted.
When I opened my eyes, I was in Operation Theatre. Later, I was told that the hit had damaged my spleen. And to fix that, I was passed through a surgical knife.
(Aamir Ahmad Mir, s/o Ghulam Mohammad Mir of Ratnipora Pulwama was hit by teargas canister on Sunday’s shootout in Pulwama. Still under the influence of chloroform, he gawkily narrated his ordeal to Riyaz Bhat in SMHS Hospital where is currently admitted.)
