The teaser for an upcoming Ajay Devgn film has outraged Kashmir by appearing to mock hundreds of protesters blinded by security forces’ pellets in what is widely considered one of the largest mass-blinding episodes in modern history.

The 144-second promotional video of Chauhaan, set for release on October 1 next year, says pellet guns — like tear gas and water cannons — cause “limited damage” and are “temporary solutions” to the problem of Kashmir’s stone-throwers.

It has caused deep anguish in Kashmir, where nearly 1,500 adults and children were blinded in one or both eyes by pellets between 2016 and 2018 alone.

An X user posted a video of 18-month-old Hiba Nisar, hit in the eye inside her home in 2018 as stone throwers and security forces clashed outside.

“Meet Hiba, the youngest pellet victim from Kashmir. If this doesn’t move you, you are inhuman. How Bollywood whitewashes human rights violations,” the post said.

One of those blinded in both eyes was the then 14-year-old Insha Mushta, who later battled the odds to pass her Class XII exams with outstanding scores.

The Centre introduced pellet guns — which shoot small metal projectiles, spraying them over a sizeable area — as a non-lethal crowd-control measure in Kashmir in 2010. Their use remained minimal until massive protests broke out in July 2016 following the killing of the popular young militant Burhan Wani.

While the combined blinding figure for 2016 to 2018 is 1,459, the official figure for 2019 is unavailable. Hospitals had stopped sharing such details in the run-up to the August 2019 abrogation of Article 370 as part of a government policy to present a rosy picture of the situation.

Widespread domestic and international criticism forced the government to curb the use of the pellet guns in 2019, anyway.

Devgn provides the voiceover in the video, which says Jammu and Kashmir saw the deployment of 15 lakh soldiers and investments of ₹35,000 crore over the last 75 years but there was still “no answer” to the protesters’stones.

“After 75 years, the answer is coming. Tell the Pathans, Chauhaan is coming,” the voiceover says.

The implication seems to be that the Valley is inhabited by Pathans — a term used apparently as a synonym for all Muslims — and that Chauhaan, a Rajput, is coming to provide a final solution.

Some have suggested a link with Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbuster film Pathaan, which presents Pathans in a positive light.

The Guardian, a British newspaper, wrote in 2016 that Kashmir had witnessed what could be the world’s first mass blinding.

Mirza Waheed, the UK-based Kashmiri author and journalist who wrote the article, shared the news story on his X handle on Saturday.

An “Indian film company has announced a film mocking scores of Kashmiri teenagers blinded by pellet guns in 2016”, he wrote.

“I wrote an essay on it at the time. Assuming people still read long form in the age of hate cinema,” he said.

“Children as young as four and five now have multiple pellets in their retinas, blinding them partially, or fully, for life. At the start of September (in 2016), doctors at Kashmir’s main hospital reported that on average, one person had their eyes ruptured by pellets every other hour since 9 July,” his article read.

“’It means 12 eye surgeries per day,’ a doctor told a local newspaper. ‘It is shocking.’”

Imran Nabi Dar, a spokesperson for the ruling National Conference, described the teaser as “trash” and said it put Nazi propagandist Goebbels to shame.

“It is full of content that can incite violence in Kashmir. Mocking children and young people who lost their eyesight, some even their life, and opening up old scars of their families is nothing short of a spiteful agenda against Kashmiris,” he posted.

“Take it down. Down with people who celebrate violence. @ajaydevgn, you are a disgrace.”

Many from outside Kashmir too expressed shock.

“There isn’t dearth of pro-govt filmmaking in majoritarian regimes. But Ajay Devgn’s Chauhaan tells us that some fascist filmmakers will put Nazi-era filmmakers like Leni Riefenstahl to shame at making propaganda films. What a shame to normalise pellet guns and dead eye epidemic,” Ashish Goel, a lawyer,wrote.

Journalist Vijaita Singh emphasised that Kashmiris were not Pathans and recalled that a coalition government with the BJP as a partner had announced an amnesty package for Kashmir’s young stone throwers.

She was referring to the Peoples Democratic Party-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir that had ruled between March 2015 and June 2018.

“There was an outreach. What is the point of this propaganda?” she said

Right-wing social media handles praised the teaser, as did Amitabh Bachchan, who posted on X: “T 5783(i) – Ajay in appreciation #CHAUHAAN aa raha hai.”

Jio Studios and Colour Yellow, a film production company, are collaborating for the film, directed by Neeraj Yadav and produced by Jyoti Deshpande, Aanand L. Rai, and Himanshu Sharma.