Kalimpong, Aug. 29: Bleeding profusely from a bullet wound, Seema Pradhan had just dragged herself under the bed and wrapped a chador around her when a posse of CRPF jawans stormed into her Tindharia home.
Her family managed to escape, but the stray bullet that hit her on the left leg, ripping through flesh and boring itself out of the other leg moments before, when she was outside her house, left her crippled.
She lay motionless, waiting for the jawans to leave, pressing the wound to stem the flow of blood, which might give her away.
That was 16 years ago, at the height of the Gorkhaland agitation, and Seema was just 18.
A doting husband had helped her forget the nightmare. But the numbness, when she accidentally spilled some “hot tea” on her leg, and the subsequent visit to the doctor at the Kalimpong Subdivisional Hospital last Saturday changed all that.
An X-ray showed that there were many pellets from the stray bullet still lodged in her legs.
At 34, Seema’s past has come back to haunt her.
“Seema did not feel a thing though a cup of hot tea spilled on her leg. I took her to the hospital where the X-ray showed that quite a number bullet pellets were embedded in her legs. The doctor advised an operation. He extracted two pellets and has told us that another operation was required,” said 36-year-old husband Sanjeev Pradhan, sitting at his 12 Mile residence.
“The pellets might create a multiple secondary neurological problem, but it’s hard to say right now,” said the Kalimpong Subdivisional Hospital doctor who operated on her. He did not want to be named.
“We do not have the expertise to conduct such a surgery and remove all the pellets,” he said.
“It was January 22, 1987. The first CRPF raid in Tindharia during the Gorkhaland agitation,” Seema recollected. “I still remember. Troops bore down on us from both sides. Siliguri and Kurseong.”
Chor aayo (the robbers are coming), the code to warn the residents of approaching jawans, had sounded late that day. “It was around 5.30 am when we got the signal. At that time, only my mother, younger brother and sister and I were at home. We were brushing our teeth when the alarm sounded. My mother managed to escape with my brother and sister, but a bullet, I do not know who shot at me, hit my leg. I fell,” she said, suppressing a shudder. “I still remember how hard it was to fit myself in with all the things that were under the bed. However, I managed to go under the bed and cover myself with a rug.”
Seema’s mother rushed back home once the jawans left, fearing the worst for her daughter. A ransacked house and Seema, weakened by the loss of blood, greeted her.
“I was rushed to the Tindharia Railway Hospital around 9.30 am where my wounds were dressed. My parents wanted to take me to Darjeeling for further treatment, but another raid at Gayabari prevented us from going. My father worked in the railway department and so decided to take me to NJP Railway Hospital instead,” said Seema.
“We were about to reach Sukna but the roads had been blocked with trees by the local people to prevent the CRPF from launching a raid. Much later, after things calmed down, the police escorted us to Darjeeling Sadar Hospital where I was treated. I stayed there for 28 days,” she recalled.
