Amnesty International asks India to stop using pellet guns in Kashmir

By Andrew Shepperson

A father holds his son, said to have been injured by security forces with pellet-firing shotguns in Srinagar, Kashmir, on Aug. 18, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)
Human rights group Amnesty International has asked India to ban the use of pellet-firing shotguns by security forces in the conflict-ridden areas of Jammu and Kashmir in the northernmost region of the country.
The group’s India chapter released a report on Wednesday, entitled Losing Sight in Kashmir, that documents the cases of 88 people whose eyesight has been damaged, some permanently, by security forces using pellet-firing shotguns as crowd control devices between 2014 and 2017.
The report says security forces in Jammu and Kasmir have been using pump-action shotguns to fire metal pellets since at least 2010.
“These inherently inaccurate shotguns fire hundreds of metal pellets which spread over a wide area,” the report says. “Their use has blinded hundreds and killed at least 14 people since July 2016.”
During the 2016 period of unrest in Kashmir, which flared up after the death of Hizbul Mujahiddin militant, Burhan Wani, security forces widely used the pellet guns, killing several people and blinding thousands, the Hindustan Times reported. Kashmir hospital data show over 6,000 people suffered pellet gun injuries during that time, with

Source: Guns.com