J&K High Court refuses to ban use of pellet guns by security forces

Stating that use of pellets was inevitable as long as there is violence by an unruly mob, Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday refused to ban the use of pellet guns for crowd control.

While dismissing a petition filed by Kashmir Bar Association to ban the use of pellet guns, the High Court observed: “What kind of force has to be used at the relevant point of time or in a given situation and place has to be decided by the persons in charge of the place where the attack is happening."

The order by the HC said that it is obvious that so long as there is “violence by unruly mobs, use of force is inevitable.”

“Having regard to the ground situation prevailing as of now and the fact that government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs has already constituted a Committee of Experts through its Memorandum dated July 27, 2016, for exploring other alternatives to pellet guns, before filing the report by the Expert Committee and a decision was taken at the Government level, we are not inclined to prohibit the use of pellet guns in rare and extreme situations,” the HC observed.

The Bar had in 2016 sought a ban on the use of pellet guns in Kashmir and sought sanction for prosecution against security officers for using pellet guns against protesters. The use of pellet guns in Kashmir during the 2016 unrest caused an international outrage forcing the government of India at that time to announce that it would introduce a less lethal alternative for the pellet gun. But pellet guns continue to be used as a ‘weapon of choice’ against civilian protesters across Kashmir.

In response to the Bar’s petition, the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) told the Court: “In case this (pellet gun) is withdrawn from the options available, its personnel would have no recourse in extreme situations, but to open fire with rifles which may cause more fatalities.”

According to figures at Srinagar’s SMHS hospital, where most of the pellet victims in Kashmir are treated, continued use of pellets, fired from shotguns by security forces for crowd control, has fully or partially blinded more than 1300 victims since 2016 alone. Of these, over 60 were injured in both eyes.