IT was 1984. I was a young Cavalry Major posted at Roorkee. The regiment was tasked to conduct a lecture on the evolution of the Armoured Corps. I was detailed to collect the material and do the basic research. The nearest big town was Dehradun and it was a military cantonment.  The research I managed, but pictures put me in a spot. They were needed to embellish the presentation and in colour, but for that I needed 300 slides to be projected and each cost Rs 50. My budget comprised of cavalry élan, panache and optimism; jugad, no cash.It suddenly struck me that a retired Colonel was heading the ONGC, on whose largesse much of Dehradun floated. I was at his office in minutes and asked his PA for an appointment, which was haughtily negated with a brusque ‘he is terribly preoccupied with a visit by the Prime Minister. Try your luck later’. No way buddy, I thought. I had no time! Pictures, script, rehearsals. It was either my way or the highway to perdition.I saw a crowd of preoccupied, weight-shifting ONGC honchos with weighty files waiting to enter Col SP Wahi’s plush office. The man had style all right, I mused. You could see his natty private helicopter parked outside his campus mansion with its litchi orchard bursting with fruit; his textured lawns. That’s when I chose to be Cavalry; uniformed Cavalry. With an apoplectic doorman behind me, I entered his hallowed space with an unnecessary ‘May I come in, Sir?’ I was already inside.Colonel Wahi, his trademark Hercule Poirot moustaches quivering, looked up, clearly annoyed: ‘Can’t you see I’m busy? Please leave.’ I was unruffled. ‘Sir, all I wanted to say is that the ONGC is Asia’s best performing behemoth. You’ve got us 29 million tons of oil a year and because of you, Bombay High has made India, the PM, the Army and the EME proud. Just wanted to say that.’ I swivelled to go, but was halted in my tracks by his imperious ‘Wait’! Getting up from his chair — it was an amazing office: deep sofas, fancy lights, velvet curtains, rich carpets, paintings — he told his hapless, stunned PA: ‘Major Mehta is an old friend. Send in tea and a crate of litchis.’The Cavalry had struck gold.I sat across his designer table munching ginger biscuits, heavenly cake; sipping Earl’s Grey in translucent chinaware. Colonel Wahi was —  behind his ferocious moustaches — full of childlike wonderment and warmth. ‘Let them wait,’ he chuckled, ‘you Cavalrymen are brash. I know that! So, how are Gurinder, Morris and Hanut? Is Hanut still unrelenting, tough?’ These were Cavalry icons and I sang their paeans…Post-tea and his recall of halcyon days, I made my 300-slide pitch. Collect tomorrow, he said. That was it. That was the man, and his astonishing efficiency and decision making. I still have the slides; wouldn’t part with them for anything.Colonel Wahi passed away on February 13 at Gurugram. His management style is studied worldwide.I miss him. India misses him.

Paratrooper Dharmendra Kumar of Nainital, U’khand

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 14

In one of the bloodiest gunfights this year, three soldiers and a top Lashkar commander were killed in north Kashmir’s Bandipore district today. At least 12 security personnel, including two officers, were wounded. Protests erupted even while the encounter was on with locals trying to march toward the site. The police lobbed tear-gas shells to quell them.In another encounter at Kralgund (Handwara) in Kupwara late in the evening, an Army Major from Narnaul in Haryana — identified as S Dhaiya of the Army Service Corps, who was attached with 30 Rashtriya Rifles — and three militants were killed, while a jawan was injured. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Sources said a fierce gunfight erupted in the wee hours as the security forces cordoned off a house at Parrey Mohalla Hajin, 30 km northwest of Srinagar, following information that two Lashkar militants were hiding there. Cornered, the militants jumped out of the house, opened indiscriminate fire and lobbed grenades to break the cordon, inflicting heavy casualties.“In the initial gunfight, at least 14 security men, including an Army Major and a CRPF Commandant, who were leading the assault teams, were wounded. Three Army men later succumbed to injuries. A Lashkar commander too was killed,” the sources said. Another militant fled as protests erupted. Chetan Cheetah, Commanding Officer, 45 Battalion, CRPF, sustained multiple gunshots. His condition is  critical. He may be shifted to Delhi. The other injured are being treated at the Army’s hospital in Srinagar.There have been at least six gunfights in Hajin area in the past nearly three months in which seven Lashkar militants have been killed.  The encounter at Kralgund Handwara was backed by locals, the police claimed. “Frequently troubled by militants, the locals helped us. A combing operation was launched during which the militants opened fire, triggering a gunfight in which three Lashkar militants were killed,” Deputy Inspector-General of Police Nitish Kumar said.”In the past three days, three fierce encounters have taken place in Kashmir. Four militants, two soldiers and a civilian were killed in south Kashmir’s Kulgam on Sunday. In the subsequent clashes, another civilian was killed.

Major among four armymen killed in Valley gunfights

LASHKAR MAN, THREE OTHER MILITANTS NEUTRALISED IN BANDIPORA, HANDWARA

SRINAGAR: An army major was among four soldiers killed in two different encounters in Kashmir where an equal number of militants were neutralised on Tuesday.

HT PHOTOSoldiers leave the site of a gunfight at Hajin village in Bandipora district on Tuesday.

In an encounter in the afternoon in north Kashmir’s Handwara three militants were gunned down while Major Satish Dhaiya who was injured later died in hospital. Deputy inspector general of police, north Kashmir, Nitish Kumar told HT that during the cordon and search operation, militants fired from the house they were hiding. The security forces returned the fire.

Shortly after the encounter, the army said Major Dahiya had been evacuated. Late Tuesday night, a Srinagar-based army spokesperson said that Major Dhaiya who was leading the operation in Handwara succumbed to his injuries. Earlier in the morning, one militant and three soldiers were killed in a gunfight in northern Kashmir’s Bandipora, police and army said.

“Three soldiers have been martyred and five others are injured. The operation has been terminated,” the army spokesperson said. The gunfight started at 5.30 am after security forces launched a search operation after being tipped off about the presence of militants in Hajin area.

Police said that the slain militant belonged to the Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) and was a foreigner. The Army said the three soldiers who were killed were paratrooper Dharmendra Kumar of Uttarakhand, rifleman Ravi Kumar of Jammu and Kashmir, and gunner Astosh Kumar of Uttar Pradesh. There have been three encounters in Kashmir since Sunday. Two soldiers, two civilians and four militants were killed on Sunday in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. On Wednesday, there is a Kulgam Chalo march called by the separatist leaders. JAMMU: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Tuesday claimed to have detected another transborder tunnel, this time in Ramgarh sub sector of Samba district. The discovery effectively foiled a possible infiltration bid by terrorists into India.

“In view of security scenario in the past few months on international border of Jammu region and after assessing various threats from Pakistani side, Border Security Force had taken various innovative measures to ensure foolproof security. In this context, an anti-tunnel exercise is being carried out regularly along the border,” said BSF Jammu Frontier DIG D Pareekh.

On Monday, a BSF patrol specifically tasked to detect tunnels, came across the subway in Ramgarh sector, Pareekh said.

The tunnel of approximately 20 meters in length with a circumference of 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet originated from Pakistani side and ended 20 metres ahead of the barbed border fence in Indian territory, he added.

The officer said that the tunnel was yet to be completed and was detected before it reached the fence. “Efforts of alert BSF troops deployed in our multi-tier counter-infiltration grid once again resulted in neutralising another attempt of Pakistan rangers in connivance with terrorists to send them into India for terror attacks”, Pareekh said.

For the past few years Pakistan has been adopting the tunnel strategy to push terrorists into Jammu. Pakistan’s transborder tunnels have been found largely in the plains of Jammu from Chilyari in Samba district to RS Pura and Pallanwala areas of Jammu district.

ARMS, AMMUNITION RECOVERED IN POONCH

Security forces in a search operation on Tuesday recovered a rich haul of arms and ammunition from a forest area near Mendhar in Poonch district “In a predawn search operation, army and police busted a major cache of arms and ammunition in a forest near Mendhar,” said defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta. He said: “Based on inputs from sources, a team of Rashtriya Rifles and JKP personnel launched a joint search operation. Arms and ammunition was recovered from the hideout, including a Pika machine gun with 90-belted rounds, AK 74 rifle, AK 47 rifle, two UBGLs, 22 UBGL grenades, two Chinese grenades, ICOM radio set with antennae and approximately 500 AK 47 rounds.”

COMMENTS BY COL CHARANJIT SINGH KHERA(Retd)

Maj Satish Dahiya (ASC) on attch with 30 RR, attained martyrdom today while fighting terrorists in Langate ( Handwara). The offr hailing from Narnaul haryana has put in 7 yrs of service, est contact with trts around 1700-1730 hrs.

The offr was fatally wounded in chest. Civilians came up and started stone pelting on soldiers in order to give cover to trts. 3 trts were however gunned down, the rest managed to escape under civilian cover.

The security forces, as in practice , were order bound to not hit civilians.

Yet again it’s the army and its brave hearts who are held up in the tussle between upholding human rights and upholding the anti-terrorist agenda of the Union.

Need to empower soldiers. Need to empower AFSPA. The offr was declared brought dead at base hospital Srinagar. May the brave soul rest in peace. A message to an ungrateful Nation??

Can we stop harping on surgical strikes  and encashing votes in states on cost of sacrifices made by brave hearts. Need to review 7CPC for degrading Defence forces to the level of para-military Forces.  A real shameful acts and speeches by National Leaders during campaigning . Which leader participated in the Surgical strike across border. Do they know how to hold a gun and handle a grande in self defence. Must stop degrading and winning elections on supreme sacrifice of soldiers and instead pay respect to them and honor them in public with two minutes silence during election rallies than the other way.

Police record shows a ‘closed’ case of theft and molestation in summer ’90, but no word on gold seizure

Right from the time travails began chasing Second Lieutenant Shatrughan Singh Chauhan in 1990, a police station close to Srinagar’s central Lal Chowk filed an FIR against unknown army personnel, accusing them of theft. The complainant, Raja Begum, claimed army men took away two gold rings and Rs 3,000 from her home, after having harassed her daughters during a crackdown at her home in Batamaloo under Shergadi police station area.

Batamaloo, barely two km from the central Lal Chowk, is where Chauhan said the army recovered 147 gold biscuits (weighing 30 kg) in a search operation on April 11, 1990. According to the FIR filed the next day by Begum, wife of Abdul Wahat Matto, the incident took place near the Sufi shrine of Ziyarat Sharief. People of the locality say no such family lives there. Nor does anybody in the area remember a neighbour by the name of Begum’s husband. In the Banpora area of Batamaloo, which is a km from the shrine, a Mattoo family says they have no information about the 26-year-old matter.

Equally curiously, police records are silent on the 1990 incident narrated by Chauhan—more so about any recovery of gold biscuits. (Batamaloo today is a separate police station.) According to senior police personnel, the FIR Begum filed was registered under section 380 of Ranbir Penal Code (Jammu and Kashmir’s equivalent of the IPC). The officials are reluctant to disclose the name of the investigating officer of the case. They say the FIR was closed 14 months later as “untraced”.

“It was a case of simple theft. It was closed on June 8, 1991,” says Deputy Inspector General of Police (Central Kashmir) Ghulam Hassan Bhat. Reason: the army personnel said to be involved in the raid were not found.

A political observer, pleading anonymity, says there was a “strong rumour” in 1990 that the army that year recovered “a good quantity” of gold from Batamaloo, and sipho­ned it off without ever reporting the reco­very to the police. “Those days, it was normal to use cash and gold to fund hawala transactions for militancy,” he adds.

In the early 1990s, when militancy in Kashmir was at its peak, places around Lal Chowk were under the command of Mushtaq-ul-­Islam, who led the militant outfit Hizbu­llah. He recalls that the area would, ahead of any crackdown, reverberate with gunfights bet­ween the militants and army-backed paramilitary forces. The militants would challenge the forces and, after a tough battle, retreat—following which the forces would enter the area to conduct house-to-house search operations.

“During these crackdowns, some rogues in the army and other forces would steal money, gold and other jewellery. That was routine,” says Mushtaq. “But I don’t think of any incident in which the army seized 25 kg or more of gold. Had it happened, it would have been in everyone’s knowledge here.”

Police officials say the FIR 96/90 of April 12 had been lodged on the complaints of several people including Raja Begam. “All have alleged that the army personnel indulged in theft and harassment,” says an official. “Even a trader has alleged that money was taken from his shop.”

The official points out to “the only thing that goes to Chauhan’s benefit”: the army had conducted the (pertinent) crackdown on April 11 at Batamaloo and the FIR filed on the behest of locals substantiates it. “The FIR clearly mentions about a crackdown in the area on April 11, 1990 and the army was inv­olved in it,” he says. “All this supports one contention of the army officer that he was part of the crackdown.”

In 1990, when armed rebellion backed by mass uprising broke out in Kashmir, gunfights between militants and security forces used to be regular in the densely-populated Batamaloo. Paramilitary Centre Reserve Police Force personnel would frequently descend onto the area to raid and conduct crackdowns.

The armed forces are unhappy with certain recommendations of the 7th pay commission. A file photo

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 4

The armed forces have approached the Defence Ministry saying by no yardstick can they be compared, let alone be lowered, in hierarchy to the paramilitary forces.The three forces — Army, Navy and the Force — have petitioned Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar seeking a restoration of earlier status, which has been “disturbed” after the recommendations of the 7th pay commission. The government is yet to announce what all it has accepted or rejected.The representation has termed comparisons with paramilitary as “wrong and misplaced”, citing suggestions made by 7th pay commission.It talks about “progressive decline of status of the forces” and warns that self-esteem of the armed forces’ officers has been hit. Such is the seriousness of the matter that Parrikar called in Chiefs of the three services for a 90-minute meeting on the matter on February 2.The paramilitary forces included the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).In their representation, which covers an entire gamut of issues, the armed forces have said there can be no comparison with the paramilitary in terms of the mandate, duties, risks in service conditions and tasks assigned.Citing past records, the forces claim the 7th pay panel recommendations will upset laid-down seniorities and placing armed forces’ allowances lower than those of paramilitary forces will change rules for risk allowances like those applicable in the north-east or J&K. It points out the base levels to calculate pensions for the forces are lower than the others.The disability pension for armed forces has been lowered, but it has been maintained at same levels for paramilitary forces. Parrikar has been informed that the pay panel has disturbed the parity between Lieut-Colonels and Commandants of the paramilitary forces.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 6

Reacting to reports that his opponent from the Patiala Urban constituency, Gen JJ Singh (retd), allegedly pulled up voters for not supporting him in the polls, state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh today called for a review of the process to select the Army chief.According to reports, the former Army chief and SAD candidate, during a visit to localities in Patiala yesterday, asserted that if elected MLA, he would not help those who didn’t vote for him.Terming Gen Singh’s angst against voters as disregard of the democratic institution of elections, Amarinder said the former had forgotten all that he had learnt in his Army career. “One must be humble and inspire the people with one’s leadership. He failed on all accounts,” he added.“From Field Marshal KM Cariappa and Gen KS Thimayya to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, we now come to Gen JJ Singh! Frankly, I thank the almighty that there was no war in his period of heading the Army,” Amarinder added.

SAD candidate Gen JJ Singh with his supporters in Patiala on Sunday. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 5

Hours after polling, SAD Patiala Urban candidate General JJ Singh (retd) was seen mingling with voters of his constituency.He literally grilled people asking them as to whom they voted for. After paying obeisance at Dukhnivaran Sahib, he visited Jai Jawan Colony and expressed his displeasure with the residents for holding a meeting with AAP’s Dr Balbir Singh.When the residents told the General that 400 votes from the colony had gone in his favour and 300 to other parties, he was quick to strike back: “In that case, I will be the MLA, but you people better get your works done from Dr Balbir Singh to whom you have cast your vote.”He said the fact that they invited Dr Balbir Singh to hold a meeting with them ahead of polls after pledging their support to the SAD means “they don’t trust the General and Dr Balbir can get the works done which he cannot”.Meanwhile, the General pulled up former Akali councilor Joginder Singh Chhanga for meeting PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh at a booth yesterday. The General went to his house and sought an explanation.Sources claim that the General was also annoyed over the working of a few local leaders and has pulled up many for not living up to party expectations. They claim that the General has decided to send a detailed report on the matter to the party high command.

Forget terror, weather is proving to be the worst enemy for the Army troops on counter-infiltration operations at the high-altitude areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir valley.

As the snow breaks new record in the Valley, the Army posts and camps in the high-altitude areas are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the killer avalanches.

In the last four days alone, Army lost 15 soldiers in the avalanches in Gurez and Sonamarg areas in north and central Kashmir.

More than 14 soldiers were rescued from the snow at two places in the last 72 hours—latest being the five of an Army patrol who got trapped when the snow track caved in at Macchil sector of the LoC in Kupwara district on Saturday.

“All the five have been rescued,” said Shamsheer Hussain, Senior Superintendent of Police, Kupwara.

Indian Army has posts located at an altitude of 14,500 feet and more which witnesses 12 feet and more snow during winter. Troops are manning the posts and patrolling the areas despite the snow and freezing temperature to prevent infiltration from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

For the last 18 years, the Army is not relocating troops from the high altitude and avalanche-prone areas given the 1999 experience when Pakistan troops, in the guise of jihadi intruders, occupied the strategic locations in Kargil sector.

“Earlier, the Army was vacating some of these posts in winter. But not after the 1999 Kargil war,” said an officer. The reason why troops suffered heavily in snow avalanches in the last 18 years. In February 2012, at least 16 soldiers were buried alive and six others injured when massive avalanches hit the sensitive army installations in Gurez and Sonamarg areas of north and central Kashmir.

Six soldiers were buried alive when a massive snow avalanche hit Siachen Glacier in Ladakh division of Jammu and Kashmir in December 2012 .

A major tragedy struck the Army troopers at prestigious High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Khilanmarg-Gulmarg in February 2010 after a snow avalanche hit the trainees’ camp leaving 17 soldiers including an officer dead and 17 injured.

Eleven Indian army soldiers including a junior commissioned officer (JCO) were swept away by a massive avalanche at an altitude of 19,600 feet in world’s highest battlefield on February 3 last year.

This year there has been three back to back avalanches given the fact that the snow has broken decades-old record in certain areas of Kashmir in January. Srinagar broke the 11-year-old record in snowfall in January. “Pahalgam also broke previous record of snowfall this January,” said Sonam Lotus, Director of Meteorological Centre, Kashmir.

Figures released by Meteorological Centre, Kashmir revealed that Srinagar recorded 143mm snow in January. It has broken the previous record of 134.6 mm in 2009. Kokarnag recorded 265.4 mm snowfall in January this year. Last highest snowfall was recorded 194.7 mm.

“We had prolonged three months of dry spell. It has been followed by snowfall. Atmospheric process is very dynamic and complex. There could be many reasons. Deep low pressure system was developed over Jammu and Kashmir. There is continuous moisture incursion from the Arabian sea,” said Lotus.

Mandeep Singh

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, February 25

Nearly four months after its announcement, the Haryana Government today released Rs 50 lakh for martyr Mandeep Singh’s family.A cheque for Rs 25 lakh was issued in the name of the sepoy’s widow, Prerna, and Rs 12.5 lakh each in the name of his parents, Phool Singh and Nirmala.Mandeep died during an anti-terror operation near the LoC in the Machil sector of Kupwara in Kashmir on October 28. His mutilated body was found along the LoC.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced Rs 50 lakh and a job to the next of kin. The delay in awarding compensation to the family, living at Anteri village was blamed on the Army. Sources denied reports that there was an official assurance on allotting a fuel station or promoting Prerna, a Haryana Police constable, to DSP.She and other members of the family tried to meet the Prime Minister on Friday to complain about the delay in compensation. She said she refused to accept the compensation in the absence of male members of the family.“I only want a martyr to be treated with respect,” she said. “The promise of a job for Mandeep’s younger brother should be met soon.”

Rs 50 lakh for Maj’s kin

• The CM has announced an assistance of Rs 50 lakh for family of Maj Satish Dahiya, who died battling militants in Kralgund, Kupwara district, on February 14. He also announced christening a government college at Nangal Chaudhary after him.

State govt takes four months to give ex gratia to Machhil braveheart

ANTEHRI (KURUKSHETRA): It took 86 days for the Haryana government to disburse ex-gratia payment to the family of Machhil braveheart Mandeep Singh, whose body was mutilated by terrorists near the Line of Control.

HT PHOTONirmala, mother of martyr Mandeep Singh (seen in a poster above), at Antehri village in Kurukshetra district.

A cheque of Rs 50 lakh was given to the family on Saturday afternoon only after the family members recently met chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and threatened to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But other promises made by the CM are yet to be fulfilled.

“The chief minister had announced to give an ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh and a government job to my younger son Sandeep. Apart from that he had also promised to construct a memorial on the funeral ground where my son was cremated. But most of the promises are not fulfilled”, martyr Mandeep’s mother Nirmala told Hindustan Times.

Khattar had visited the family and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh to Singh’s kin and promised a government job to a family member.

They also claimed that the CM had also promised a promotion for Mandeep’s wife Prerna, who is a constable with the Haryana police.

“Even when we met the chief minister four days ago at his residence in Chandigarh, he assured the demands will be fulfilled, but he refused to accept the demand for Prerna’s promotion,” she said.

She said the chief minister made it clear that the government won’t be able to promote Prerna. “The CM told us that he alone cannot take the decision (of her promotion) and he needs to discuss the matter with his cabinet colleagues,” Nirmala quoted Khattar as saying.

“But the government should think about the future of this girl who lost everything at the age of 26,” she added.

As they have failed to get any immediate assurances from the chief minister, Mandeep’s younger brother Sandeep has reached Delhi to meet the Prime Minister. “We are going to meet the Prime Minister in Delhi and will return only after meeting him”, Sandeep told HT over phone.

“The government should also think about my sister-in-law. If they can promote a medal winner to the post of DSP, why can’t a widow of martyr get a promotion”, he asked.

In October last year, the 26-year-old Sepoy Mandeep Singh of the 17th Sikh regiment was martyred in a gun-fight with militants along LoC in Machill sector of Kashmir. Militants mutilated his body.

On October 30, when his mutilated body reached his native village, thousands of people, including chief minister, Kurukshetra deputy commissioner Sumedha Kataria and other officials of the district administration reached the village to console the family and assured all the support. But now the family members are running from pillar to post to get what had been assured after Singh’s death.

Haryana chief secretary DS Dhesi said , “The martyr certificate which is an essential document for release of financial assistance was received from the army authorities on February 5 and the compensation has now been released.”

Kurukshetra deputy commissioner Sumedha Kataria said she issued the cheque of Rs 50 lakh on Saturday and the money will reach the family member soon. About the delay, she said, “The file was pending with the Sikh regiment and it took 86 days to complete the process.”

She said there was no delay on the part of the state government.

On other demands of the bereaved family, she said steps were being taken to fulfill them, including the construction of the memorial.

BJP’s Kurukshetra MP Rajkumar Saini demanded of the government to fulfill its promises made to the martyr’s family.

A paramilitary jawan holds a pellet gun in Srinagar. File Photo

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 25

Amid growing concerns among the security establishment of a hot summer ahead, the controversial pellet guns in Kashmir are being fitted with deflectors to avoid casualties and injuries to vital organs, especially eyes.The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police faced huge criticism during last year’s unrest over the use of pellet guns, which resulted in eye injuries to over 1,100 youths, with many losing their sight. There was a demand for a blanket ban on the guns as even deaths were reported due to the pellets during the five-month unrest following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Inspector General, CRPF, Ravideep Singh Sahi said the force had begun installing deflectors on pellet guns and the technology would ensure that vital organs were not hit during any law and order problem. “We have been always ensuring that vital organs are not targeted… These deflectors will further ensure that only the lower part of the body is hit,” Sahi told The Tribune. In Kashmir, 47 CRPF battalions are deployed and are involved in both anti-militancy operations and restoring law and order. In central Kashmir districts alone, which include Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, 23 battalions are deployed, which possess around 400 pellet guns. This means around 700-800 pellets guns have to be fitted with deflectors. After the injuries during the 2016 unrest, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had set up a committee to review the use of pellet guns. The panel had advised that these be used only in pressing circumstances. The forces had even experimented with Pawa (chilli-filled) guns, but these were not found effective for controlling the crowd. 

How these will work

• Deflectors are being installed at the barrel of pellet guns
• When pellets are fired, deflectors will ensure that only lower part of body is hit
• As such, any serious injury, including that to vital organs, will be avoided