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A doctor at the Safdarjung Hospital said on Monday a man injured during Sunday’s protest against the new citizenship law in the national capital appeared to have a bullet injury, a remark that prompted the Delhi Police to deny opening fire on agitators, saying their “personnel were not carrying firearms”.
The police said the wound could be from the sharp edge of a tear gas shell fired during the protests that turned into clashes after four public buses were set on fire in south Delhi. Dozens were injured in Sunday’s clashes near Jamia Millia Islamia, following which the police entered the campus and lathi-charged several students, leading to allegations of brutality.
Twenty-two-year-old Ajaz, who goes by only one name, was brought to the hospital’s emergency ward shortly after 5.30pm with an injury to his chest, according to the facility’s medical superintendent Dr Sunil Gupta. “The examinations done by the doctors at the hospital emergency showed that he had a bullet wound. We do not know what happened at the protest or who shot him. He is currently in the ICU with a chest tube. He is stable,” said Dr Gupta.
Ajaz is suspected to have a diaphragmatic rupture (a tear of the diaphragm or the muscle at the bottom of the rib cage that helps in breathing), according to another doctor, who asked not to be named.
When asked about Ajaz’s injuries, joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said: “No bullet was fired, not even rubber bullets. The police only lathi-charged protesters and launched tear gas shells and gas grenades. There is a possibility that some protesters may have been hit by shrapnel from tear gas shells or gas grenades.” He added that an injury from tear gas shrapnel can sometimes be mistaken for a bullet injury during initial medical examination.
Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said if they was a bullet wound, it was not becuase of the police. “It is possible that anti-social elements fired on the police and the bullet hit one person. We will investigate,” he said.
One more injured person was being treated at the government-run hospital after Sunday’s protest. Shoaib, 23, sustained a fracture of the metatarsal bone in his foot and underwent surgery to repair it on Monday morning, another Safdarjung Hospital doctor said.
The Holy Family Hospital said it received about 35 patients in their emergency department till late on Sunday night. Of those injured, 12 were policemen.
Of the three people admitted overnight, one had a laceration that needed stitches, another had to get a “foreign object” removed, and a third person, a policeman, was kept under observation till Monday evening, with swelling on the head.
At the trauma centre run by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, 38 people were brought to the emergency ward on Sunday night. Most of them had bruises and minor lacerations and just needed first aid. “Eight people, including two policemen, had sustained fractures for which they were treated and discharged. Only one person with fractures is still admitted,” said a doctor from the AIIMS trauma centre on condition of anonymity.
Reverand Father George, director of the Holy Family Hospital, said: “Most of the people who were brought to the hospital had minor injuries, some bruises and cuts and were just given first aid. However, eight people were admitted just to monitor their wounds.”
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