Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 20: A high-level Committee, constituted by the Union Home Ministry, for review of pellet guns, has been mulling various options after receiving proposals from different security agencies including the Army and would finalize its report and submit recommendations to Home Minister Rajnath Singh next month.
Highly placed official sources told the Excelsior that the team headed by Home Ministry Joint Secretary T V S N Prasad and comprising Atul Karwal, IG, CRPF, Srinagar, Rajeev Krishna, IG, BSF, Rajesh Kumar of J&K Police, Tushar Tripathy of Indian Ordnance Factory Board, Manjit Singh of Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh and Naresh Bhatnagar of IIT, Delhi, has held series of meetings after receiving suggestions from some security agencies on the use of pellet guns, a non-lethal weapon, in Kashmir.
“The high-level Panel of the Home Ministry will continue to hold regular meetings as soon as more suggestions pour in from security forces, police and multiple agencies, which deal with law and order problem in various parts of the State before finalizing its recommendations and submitting them to the Union Home Ministry,” sources said.
According to sources, the Army has suggested that pellet guns could be replaced by para-military Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police with less lethal weapons like pepper shotguns, chilli grenades and sound cannons.
“The Army has given its recommendation to the Expert Committee of the Home Ministry observing that the three options suggested by it were less lethal than the pellet guns but prove as useful as the pellet guns for crowd control in the Kashmir valley, they said.
Sound cannons, used by law-enforcement agencies worldwide, emit ultra-high frequency blasts that trigger ear-splitting sound to disperse mobs. Pepper guns fire plastic shells packed with pepper that explode on contact causing severe eye, nose and throat irritation, sources said, adding that indigenously developed chilli grenades can cause more intense physical discomfort than pepper guns.
The chilli grenades have been developed by the Indian military scientists.
Pointing out that several other security agencies, para-military forces and security experts have either come up with their views on review of pellet guns or have promised to give their suggestions soon, sources said the CRPF was, however, of the view that pellet guns were the most suited “non-lethal option” under the prevailing circumstances in the Kashmir valley as, on many occasions, the crowd was very large in numbers while a number of times, the militants also mix up in the crowd to flare up the trouble.
Sources said the high-powered Committee has also sought options of ‘alternate to pellet guns’ from various experts including retired officers of various security agencies, para-military forces and heads of police, who had dealt with such situations earlier.
“The Committee was expecting response of the experts and security agencies in the next few days as it would like to meet its two-month deadline of finalizing the recommendations and submitting report to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh,” sources said.
While announcing the high-level committee for review of pellet guns use on July 27, Rajnath Singh had given it the time of two months to elicit expert opinion, remarks of security and para-military forces besides police and submit report to him within a period of two months.
The committee was set up following uproar by various opposition parties that several people have been injured in the Kashmir valley and might lose vision due to use of pellet guns.
According to sources, the Home Ministry will take decision on review of pellet guns used by the para-military CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police only after the receipt of recommendations by the high-level committee.
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