April 26
The Government Forces on Friday evening resorted to pellet firing on protesters in the Islamabad (Anantnag) township of South Kashmir, injuring an 11 year old boy.
Eyewitnesses told The Kashmiriyat that during a minor stone throwing incident near the Deputy commissioner’s office in the township, the CRPF men deployed inside the DCs office fired innumerable pellets on the protesters.
During the pellet firing, one kid identified as Muzammil Ahmed Darzi (11), a resident of Qazi Mohalla in the Islamabad (anantnag) township, who is a student of class 5 was ht with pellets in his abdominal area.
He was rushed to the nearby hospital where the doctors shifted him to a Srinagar hospital for advanced care, A hospital official confirmed to The Kashmiriyat.
Eyewitnesses told The Kashmiriyat that not even a single stone had been pelted towards the CRPF camp near DC office, a few boys started hooting at them and they responded with pellet firing and targeted this young boy.
A CRPF official upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat denied this and said that the forces fired the pellets in self defense.
“Do they need to defend themselves from a stone thrown by an 11 year old kid?” the father of Muzammail said while replying to the CRPF claim.
Pellet guns – a form of shotgun – were first used by the police as a non-lethal weapon to quell protests in Kashmir in 2010. They are normally used for hunting animals.
After a massive public outcry in 2016, India said it would reconsider their use, but forces continue to use it. At least 17 people were killed by pellet guns in 2016 and 2017 and thousands of people have sustained injuries in eyes and other parts of the body in recent years, with many disabled for life.