Blinded by pellets, Kashmiri children images stun world.

Byline: Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON -- 'Watching cartoons on TV, playing with my friends on the street, reading books for hours this is what I dream of now,' says nine-year-old Asif Ahmad Sheikh, a Class 5 student from Anantnag.

'I used to teach sewing and tailoring to girls in my village, but not anymore. Because of the injuries, I could not write my class 10 board exam,' says 17-year-old Ulfat Hameed, a Class 10 student from Baramulla.

'When I went to a hospital in Srinagar, there were so many people that the doctors sent me back home as they did not have beds available,' says Bilal Ahmad Bhat, 17, another student from Baramulla.

These three children are among the hundreds of Kashmiri people blinded by pellets in India-held Kashmir. Dozens have lost lives. Their pictures are included in a 109-page book put together by Amnesty International to draw the attention of the international community to the cruel practice.

The book was among the several exhibits displayed at the Pakistan embassy in Washington on Monday evening in connection with the Black Day, which is observed annually to show solidarity with the Kashmiris who are struggling for their rights under Indian occupation.

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The pictures of the pellet-gun victims stunned the world and the universal condemnation that followed forced India to claim that it had ordered its troops not to use those guns anymore. But the Kashmiris say Indian security forces are still using the pellet-guns particularly after Aug 5 when India illegally annexed the disputed territory.

American citizens of Kashmiri origin claim that dozens of Kashmiris in India-held Valley have been injured by pellet-guns in recent months.

This week six members of US Congress David N. Cicilline, Dina Titus, Chrissy Houlahan, Andy Levin, James P. McGovern and Susan Wild also raised the issue in a letter to Indian ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

Rejecting the Indian claim that there was calm in the held Kashmir, the lawmakers argued that the picture portrayed by India in the Valley was different from the one being told to them by their constituents.

'We have heard reports that rubber bullets are being used for crowd control by authorities inside Jammu and Kashmir and that there have been instances where protesters are blinded by the use of rubber bullets,' the lawmakers wrote.

'Can you confirm whether there are any known cases of protesters being blinded...