On Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, expressed his concern over the grave violations in the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir. He urged the Indian government to end the use ke shotgun pellets against children.
In the UN Report on Children 2021, Guterres has said “I call upon the government to take preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets against children, ensuring that children are not associated in any way to security forces, and endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles.”
The report made a mention of 4 children who were detained by the Indian Forces in Jammu Kashmir for alleged associations with armed groups.
“A total of 39 children (33 boys, 6 girls) were killed (9) and maimed (30) by pellet guns (11) and torture (2) by unidentified perpetrators (13) (including resulting from explosive remnants of war (7), crossfire between unidentified armed groups and Indian security forces (3), crossfire between unidentified armed groups, and grenade attacks (3)), Indian security forces (13), and crossfire and shelling across the line of control (13). The United Nations verified the use of seven schools by Indian security forces for four months. Schools were vacated by the end of 2020,” the report said.
Guterres said that he was alarmed at the detention and torture of children and concerned by the military use of schools.
He said that he welcomed the positive engagement of the central government of India with his special representative in order to implement national preventive and accountability measures for all the grave violations.
“I urge the (Indian) Government to ensure that children are detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and to prevent all forms of ill-treatment in detention,” he said. “I also urge the (Indian) Government to ensure the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, to address the use of children for illegal activities and the situation of detained children.buy cialis strips online https://www.facebeautyscience.com/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone/inc/new/cialis-strips.html no prescription ”
Indian paramilitary forces and police have extensively used shotgun pellets to subdue pro-freedom protesters, most of whom often are young men and teens. In the massive uprisings of the year 2016, what many characterized as the “world’s first man blinding,” more than 1,100 people were partially or fully blinded. Children as young as 19-month-old Heeba have been a victim of the shotgun pellets.