Insha Mushtaq, a Kashmiri teenage girl blinded by pellet gun, finished her Class 10 state board exams on Wednesday.
The 15-year-old who became the face of pellet wound survivors in Kashmir refused to be bogged down by her handicap and asserted that "she would not give in to her disability," reported local media.
Insha, who can yet not rely on braille completely, needs a helper chosen by the authority to write her exam.
"I want to overcome what pellets did to me. I want to be able to take control of my life again," Insha who is doggedly pursuing her studies, told the newspaper,.
On the evening of July 11, three days after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Muzaffer Wani in a gunfight with police at Kokernag village of neighboring Anantnag district, Insha heard a noise outside her house. The inquisitive teenager opened the window of her kitchen facing the street outside.
While pulling the panels inward, she heard an explosion. The next moment, she closed her eyes and gave a loud cry of pain, as blood oozed out from dozens of small wounds on her face. And darkness overtook her.
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"Everything turned dark," Insha had told Outlook in an interview.
According to the health department of Kashmir, around 10,000 people were wounded in the protests that erupted after Wani's killing. Of the 10,000 wounded, 6,205 persons were hit by the pellets during the turbulent summer and 1,100 have pellet wounds in their eyes. "Those who were hit by pellets in their eye have lost their vision. Now you cannot hide behind a jargon of what percentage of vision one has," says a senior doctor in the SMHS hospital pleading anonymity. "All those who have pellets in the eyes are visually impaired."
Insha underwent skull surgeries in New Delhi, after which she was taken to Mumbai. Doctors, in March this year, finally told her she will never see again.
