Discontinue pellet guns, says HC

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has said the state government should discontinue use of pellet guns for crowd control during law and order situation in view of the statement made by Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament.

“The (Union) home minister has said in the Lok Sabha that an expert committee will be framed to find substitutes to pellet guns. This statement should be sufficient for the government to discontinue the use of pellet guns,” a division bench of the court said on Saturday while hearing a PIL.

The bench comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar said Singh’s statement also meant that the pellet guns were “not non-lethal”.

The court directed the government to provide necessary treatment to all those injured in the ongoing unrest and shift those, who need specialised medical attention, out of the state.