It would have been a regular day for the Associated Press photographer Dar Yasin, had he not seen the bloodied body of Khushboo Jan and would have showcased a rare act of humanity.
According to a Hindustan Times report, Dar was covering a students’ protest on Thursday in Nawakadal area of Srinagar when he saw Khushboo Jan, a student of class 12, and one of the many high-school girls protesting in the area.
During the protest, a stone hit Khushboo on the forehead and cracked open her skin. As she collapsed right on the spot, blood gushed out, staining her school uniform and hijab. Her school friends panicked on seeing Khushboo bleeding profusely as neither the hostile-looking policemen nor the bunch of journalists went ahead to help.
But like they say, everybody has a guardian angel. And Yasin turned out to be Khushboo’s guardian angel at that moment. The photographer threw his camera aside, forgot all about his job and chose humanity instead. He picked up Khusboo in his arms and rushed her to the nearest hospital.
The image of Yasin running with the girl was captured by another young photojournalist Faisal Khan, who later shared it on his wall and has gone viral.
This picture of Yasin is a strong reminder of Syrian photographer Abd Alkader Habak, who too was captured on April 18, 2017, while he picked up a young boy and rushed him to a safe place after a bomb hit a convoy of buses.
For millions, this photo of the Syrian photographer clicked by Muhammad Alrageb not just showcases the horrors of war but also restored their hope in humanity. Many compared Yasin with Abd Alkader on social media as they have become the new face of humanity!
These two images tell us why we should salute Kashmir’s @daryasin and Syria’s @AbdHabak , who put down their cameras and helped victims
“I have two daughters and this girl is just like one of them. If you are the father of two girls or if you are a father of any child, you cannot just see anyone’s child helplessly suffering like that,” says Yasin, who is a father of two daughters, aged 7 and 10.
This 43-year-old has been covering Kashmir since 2002 and has received at least 15 international and national awards for his work. He told the Hindustan Times that he picked up the girl when he saw that no one came ahead to help her. “Looking back, I feel happy that I helped her. Pictures will keep coming,” he says.
Though this story ended happily as Khushboo reached the hospital on time and is now stable, Yasin said in the same report photographers often face such dilemmas of whether continue doing their jobs or help the needy or wounded in a conflict zone.
For Yasin all these praises for thinking about the girl first, and not his job does not matter much.
“I am not the first one to have done this. I can tell you there are so many guys on the field in Kashmir who would have done the same what I did that day,’ Yasin added.
