Stone-pelters attack car in J&K village,baby killed

“The stone-pelting created panic and passengers jumped out of the vehicle. Kulsoom too panicked and tried to run to safety. She was pushed by the stone-pelters and her ten-day-old baby fell from her lap. Her other kid Obaid was hit by a stone and is injured,” Deputy Inspector General of Police,North Kashmir, Abdul Qayoom Manhas told The Indian Express. “The baby died. We have registered a murder case against the stone-pelters.” 

Police said the attackers were imposing the strike called in protest against the police’s crackdown on stone-pelters across the Valley. Demanding release of the youth arrested by the police during the past week,the protesters have virtually paralysed Baramulla for the past three days.

Kulsooma,wife of Nissar Ahmad Magrey,a resident of Rawchoo village in Rafiabad,later told doctors at Baramulla District Hospital that her baby had been keeping unwell since Saturday evening. She could not take him to a doctor on Sunday due to the strike. After the baby’s condition worsened Monday morning,she decided to bring him to Baramulla.

“When the baby was brought to the hospital,blood was oozing out of his nose and he was breathless,”a doctor who attended to him said. “The mother told us the baby fell from her lap onto the road and was unconscious ever since. She also told us that she wanted to bring the baby to hospital on Sunday but due to stone-pelting in the town, she could not venture out of her home. But as the child’s condition worsened,she decided to take the risk and rush the baby to hospital today.”

However,the doctor also said the baby had “no apparent external injury” and that he was suffering from septicemia and hypothermia.

Obaid,who was hit on the head by a stone,got four stitches,doctors said.