By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Rahmoo (Pulwama): Inside the single-storey home located atop Lidergan hill in Wani Mohallah, Rahmoo in South Kashmir, Shabroza Banoo, 18 is sitting beside the only window which allows sunlight directly inside her house. She spends most of her days gazing at the vehicles passing through the main Rahmoo town- down the hill.
The uneasy calm prevailing inside the house suddenly breaks with her loud cry. She feels an intense pain in her left eye. The pain isn’t due to some medical infection; it is from the pellets which still remain inside her left eye and face. Her father Mohammad Akbar, who makes Kangri (a Kashmiri firepot used in winters) rushes with water towards her but she denies drinking even a drop of it.
“I am fasting. Don’t you know? ”she asks her father.
Despite being shot by pellets and continuous pain and surgeries she had to go through, Shabroza still observes fasts as if it is like fasting in any other normal year. “I used to fast for few days when I was in between 7 and 11 years old, but since then I have been continuously fasting for the whole month whatever may come. It is about faith and faith in Allah that he will help me ease my pains,” she tells TwoCircles.net.
Doctors have advised her not to put water on her left eye as it may complicate her problems and affect her chances of recovery.
“I pray five times a day and have to wash my face five times and sometimes I accidently put water on my eye, but slowly I am getting used to it,” she says.
Like everyone in the family, She wakes up early morning to eat “Suhoor”, then offer prayers and sleeps.
“We don’t let her work. Her five siblings take care of her part of work. Most of the time, I see her praying to Allah for her speedy recovery. She can’t bear this pain on a daily basis,” says Mohammad Akbar.
Two days ago, she had to visit a hospital in Srinagar city, some 45 kms from Rahmoo for medical tests. “We asked her not to fast while travelling, but she didn’t relent and fasted whole day despite the excruciating pain she had to bear.”
She was shot by security forces on October 31, 2016, when forces were chasing protesters who had climbed the hill nearby her house. As she came out in the chaos, a security force personnel aimed his pellet gun at her and hit a full cartridge at her chest and face. The pellets have left her partially blind.
Mohammad Ashraf, 28 lives in the main market Rahmoo, below the Lidergan Hill. He was shot with bullets by security forces during 2016 summer protest in his back which pierced his liver, touched one of his lungs and came out through the chest. Luckily he survived. While he was still recuperating from the bullet wounds, he was again shot with pellets by forces in October, 2016. He lost vision his right eye and suffers from partial blindness in the left eye.
He stays in his bed for most of the day weathering under the pain but it is no deterrent to fast. Even though his medical condition does not allows him to fast, he still fasts on days on which he feels less pain in the body.
“I started fasting at 13 years of age. I still remember how my father had issued a decree at home not to give food to anyone who doesn’t fast. Food used to be available in our house from Iftaar to Suhoor, afterwards a full food lockdown for the day was imposed,” he recalls.
For Ashraf, every second of his day is a struggle, to the bear the tormenting pain and the darkness surrounding him, reminding him every time that he can’t see any more.“I suddenly get attacks of pain in my body. Different organs have been affected and the more severe are the pellets which are still holed inside my face and chest. They give me unbearable pain and Allah knows how many more surgeries I have to go through.”
Doctors have advised him to take a good diet as he has grown weak and has less blood count. “I wake up on Suhoor itself but my family don’t let me fast. But after my stiff resistance they do allow me to fast some days. .”
Ashraf is scheduled to get operated on his eye, whose surgery is on June 20th later this month and has decided to fast twice before getting operated.
“I am looking forward to days when I will get totally well and fast again as I used to do it before,” he adds with optimism.