Among the nearly 65 per cent of the candidates who passed class 12th board exams on Friday is the 20-year-old Insha Muhstaq.
Blinded by pellets in the year 2016, Insha Mushtaq, a resident of Shopian’s Sedow area has qualified the class 12th board exams.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, over the phone, a relative of Insha confirmed that she (Insha) had passed the board exams of class 12th with first division.
Expressing joy over Insha’s results, the family said, “They are extremely joyous that Insha has been able to pursue many of her dreams despite the fact that she is visually impaired.”
On July 11, 2016, Insha, then 14, opened the window of her house to look out at the protests raging against the killing Burhan Wani at her native in Sedow Shopian. The next moment, the forces deployed in the area fired a volley of pellets indiscriminately, hitting Insha in the face, skull and her eyes. Insha has not been able to see since then.
Fearing that she had been hit by a bullet, the family rushed her to the District Hospital in Shopian, where doctors referred her to a Kashmir’s tertiary care hospital in Srinagar. She was also taken to various hospital in Delhi and elsewhere, but she could not gain her eyesight.
In 2016-17, Insha, whose pellet-riddled face forced a debate around the use of pellets in Kashmir valley, qualified Class 10 examinations, despite facing a complete loss of sight in both eyes.
Insha, now 20, is one of the hundreds of teenagers who have become pellet guns’ collateral damaged.