KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Saturday 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 here 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 Union Home Minister’s statement meant that in Kashmir it is not non-lethal weapon, the court said, adding the procedures have to be reasonable, fair and just.
The court directed the government to provide necessary treatment to all those injured in the on-going civil uprising and shift those, who need specialized medical attention, out of the state.
“Ensure that treatment is provided to the patients. Shift those who need specialized treatment,” it said.
Observing that “when a person loses his eyesight, he loses everything, he loses universe”, the division bench said.
“No sensitive soul can bear looking at these pictures (in a newspaper of a minor boy injured in security forces action). He is a five-year-old child. You cannot accuse him of throwing stones”.
