The government has constituted an expert team headed by a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs to explore possible alternatives to pellet guns. The use of pellet guns in the Kashmir Valley for crowd control has come under strong criticism.
Besides Joint Secretary T V S N Prasad, who will head the team, the other members are Atul Karwal, IG, CRPF, Srinagar; Rajeev Krishna, IG, BSF; Rajesh Kumar of the J&K Police; Tushar Tripathy of the Indian Ordnance Factory Board; Manjit Singh of Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh; and Naresh Bhatnagar of IIT, Delhi.
Several people, including children, have been injured in the last fortnight when CRPF personnel used pellet guns to control violent protesters in Kashmir. The Central government had sent a team of doctors to the Valley to treat injured youths.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced in Parliament that a committee would be set up to review the use of pellet guns and find an alternative. A Home Ministry spokesperson said the expert committee would submit its report in two months.
