India’s paramilitary force has confessed to using pump action guns to fire nearly 1.7 million pellets at protesters in Indian-held Kashmir to disperse demonstrations.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) fired around 3,765 cartridges, each containing 450 metallic balls, between 9 July and 11 August – amounting to the discharge of almost 1.7 million pellets in total.
The admission comes in response to a public interest lawsuit in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court seeking a ban on the weapons.
Pellet guns have injured more than 400 people in the valley, with many people suffering irreversible damage to their eyes.
At the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, 106 surgeries were performed in which five people lost one eye completely.
The federal government has had to send eye surgeons to Kashmir to help the victims.
Amnesty International India has termed the pellet gun a less “lethal weapon”, but said it still has “deadly consequences” and has called for an immediate end to its use.
