Govt will look at alternatives to pellet guns, says Rajnath

Cornered by the Opposition over the usage of pellet guns for mob control in Kashmir, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday announced that the government would look at other non-lethal alternatives as “we all feel sad” over the loss of lives and injuries in the Valley. However, he asserted that Pakistan played a “key role” in fomenting the recent trouble in Kashmir and it was sponsoring terrorism in India. 

Replying to a debate on the Kashmir unrest in the Lok Sabha, where many members expressed concern over the injuries caused by pellet guns, he said an expert committee would be set up to recommend alternatives to pellet guns. It would submit its report in two months, he added.

Describing the youth of Kashmir as “patriots”, he said in “there is an attempt to misguide some” of them and a “mindset that stokes baseless anger against India”. Singh said Pakistan played a “key role” in fuelling tension and that the situation in Valley was “normalising” gradually.

He also reached out to other parties, saying that the government alone could not solve the problems in Kashmir and all would have to work together.

“We all feel sad over the lives lost and those injured,” Singh said, adding that “barbarism” can have no place in the society, citing incidents where some people had celebrated when some security personnel were killed.

Referring to concerns expressed by members over the use of pellet guns, he said one person had died due to injuries caused by these weapons, while 53 had suffered injuries in eyes.

“We will form a committee of experts. It will see to it what non-lethal alternatives we can bring in place of pellet guns. It will give report in two months,” he said. Singh said these guns, categorised as non-lethal, had not been used in Kashmir for the first time as they had been used in 2010 when six persons were killed by these and 98 had sustained eye injuries, with five suffering complete blindness.

Singh rejected criticism that security forces used pellet guns indiscriminately, but at the same time said it cannot be denied that someone might have committed some mistakes. He said PM Narendra Modi has directed security forces to maintain “maximum restraint”.

He described Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whose killing in an encounter sparked the recent protests, as a “tech-savvy terrorist of new generation”, who had exploited social media platforms to lure youth into picking up the gun.

Training guns on Pakistan, he said it came into being in the name of religion but failed to keep the Muslims together and underwent a division. “It does not need to worry about Muslims in India,” he said and invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s poem to suggest that those who fuel fire in the homes of others get caught in the same blaze.

Referring to the ‘black day’ observed by Pakistan on the killing a Hizbul Mujahedin terrorist Burhan Wani in Kashmir, he said the neighbour had no right to interfere in India’s internal matters, but it was doing so to deflect attention from its failures as the people there were fighting along sectarian lines. “If there is terrorism in India, then it is Pakistan sponsored,” he said.

Singh said Modi was in touch with him even during the Africa tour too, enquiring about the situation and giving suggestions.