A Kashmiri journalist suffered critical wounds and may also lose his eyesight after he fell into an uncovered pit near Srinagar’s city centre on Saturday.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, Bilal Ahmed, working with a Srinagar-based newspaper and originally a resident of Sopore’s Batpora in north Kashmir, said that on Saturday he was covering the night view of the Smart City project when he fell into a pit that was left open.
“At around 10:30 PM, I was walking along the City centre for some photographs of the ‘Smart City’ project, when I suddenly stepped into an open pit near Biscoe school. I cried for help but all in vain. It was only after ten or fifteen minutes that a Scorpio driver came and pulled me up,” Bilal said.
He said that the driver spotted his camera and called a journalist friend of his, who came to Bilal’s help along with two more journalists.
“They took me to the hospital, where I was given first aid. I have seven stitches in my ear and several parts of my body are wounded. What is tragic to me is the fact that my eye has also suffered an injury during the incident and it was only today morning that I opened my eyes, but I could barely see anything,” Bilal told The Kashmiriyat over the phone.
Hailing from a poor family in North Kashmir district, 21-year-old Bilal took up photojournalism as he did not have enough resources to meet the ends of his family. “I was trained by some of the most trained photojournalists in the Kashmir valley and have been in this profession for the last two years. My camera is everything to me. It is gone now. The camera was completely damaged during the incident,” Bilal said while sharing the images of his damaged camera with us.
The doctors have expressed hope that his light would return as time passes. “I do not know, my world would be lost without eyesight. I like seeing the beauty of the world and capturing it with my camera, but I do not know if I can see it again. The doctors have asked me to wait for Seven days,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
He appealed to the officials to compensate for the losses he has suffered during the incident.