‘Protests difficult to control, Lathis first choice, pellets last choice’
Inspector General of J&K police for Kashmir zone, Syed Javid Mujtaba Gillani has said that the Valley “continues to remain tense” as there is no improvement in the situation as it was on July 8.
According to reports, Gillani said so far there has been “no alternative to pellets used for crowd control and this is the only option after ‘lathis’ and teargas as Valley protests are of an extreme nature and difficult to control.”
“Lathis are obviously our first choice and then the tear-gas shells. We don’t use bullets,” he said. “We do use pellets and there is no other option when protests are of an extreme nature.”
He has said that what option the police have when there are 93 incidents of extreme protests followed by violence in a single day?
“We use pellets in such extreme circumstances, otherwise we stick to ‘lathis’ and tear-gas shells only.”
Since July 8, when Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Wani was killed, it triggered massive unrest across Kashmir, resulting in death of over 50 youth in action by forces while nearly 6000 civilians and forces personnel have got injured.
Over 150 civilians have suffered grave injuries in their eyes with over 20 of them on the verge of losing their eyesight forever.
On indiscriminate use of pellets, he said police was waiting for the report of Central Committee.
“We have no alternatives, yet we are assessing the situation and using pellets in extreme situations,” he claimed. “There are JK officials in the Committee—one IG from JK police, another IG from the CRPF and a few more officials.”