Indian paramilitary force has admitted before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that it used 1.3 million pellets in 32 days to control street protests in held Kashmir.
It said 3,000 pellet cartridges, around 1.6 million pellets, were fired from the pump action guns, which has come under sharp focus both from political class as well as the rights bodies, Indian Newspaper The Hindu reported on Friday.
“8,650 teargas shells were used from July 8 to August 11. 2,671 plastic pellets have been used too,” the newspaper quoted Inspector General, CRPF as saying.
The CRPF argued that weapon should be aimed below the waist “but the situation prevailing on the streets during the ongoing law and order incident is dynamic and mobile.”
In response to public interest litigation (PIL), seeking a ban on pellet guns that has left more than 400 injured in their eyes, the CRPF in its affidavit admitted that “it was difficult to follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) given the nature of protests.”
Disapproving of the use of pellet guns by security forces against protesters, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court last month sought a report from the Centre on handling of the “lethal” weapons by “untrained personnel”.
The court also asked the government to look at other means of crowd control than pellet guns.
“These are your people. They have anger. They are protesting. That does not mean you should render them disabled. You have to protect them. Hope it (use of pellet guns) is reviewed,” a division bench comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar said while hearing a PIL.
A Pakistani group, using photoshopped pictures of celebrities, started an online campaign to highlight the violence currently rocking Indian-occupied Kashmir.
The campaign consists of 11 photoshopped pictures showing the gravely wounded faces of Indian celebrities, including Bollywood stars, political figures like the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sonia Ghandi, as well as Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg.
