The use of pellet guns to control protests in India has come under renewed scrutiny after the weapons were reportedly deployed against student demonstrators in New Delhi last week, marking a significant expansion of a tactic previously confined to Kashmir. John Dayal, a prominent human rights defender and secretary general of the All India Catholic Union, has strongly condemned the move, calling for full government accountability and a formal inquiry.
"The government's culpability here is not really in doubt," Dayal stated, writing in a commentary that underscores the Catholic laity movement's concerns. He highlighted that the All India Catholic Union, a 107-year-old organization, has demanded an official White Paper into the handling of the massive protests over education system failures and examination corruption.
The controversy erupted after the July 20 march by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party from Jantar Mantar to Parliament, where at least four young Indians, including 19-year-old Sahil Lochab and 25-year-old Sheik Irshad Mansoori, were treated for pellet injuries. Lochab may permanently lose his right eye, with doctors giving only a one percent chance of his sight returning, while Mansoori has a pellet lodged dangerously near a blood vessel in his neck.
Although Delhi Police have denied any use of pellet guns and the Central Reserve Police Force has remained silent, the Delhi High Court has ordered all agencies to preserve video footage from the day. Fact-checkers have geolocated footage placing the victims near an RAF officer raising a weapon identified by experts as a 12-bore pump-action shotgun, which the Ordnance Factory in Pune certifies only for scaring animals and hunting birds.
Dayal noted the grim history of this weapon, first introduced in Kashmir in 2010 as a "non-lethal" alternative to live ammunition. He pointed to the devastating consequences, citing that in the summer of 2016 alone, over a million pellets were fired in 32 days, with more than 6,000 people hit and over 1,100 blinded in the eyes. Amnesty International documented 88 cases of blinding between 2014 and 2017, calling for a ban, a plea echoed by Human Rights Watch.
Despite a caution from then-Home Minister Rajnath Singh to use the gun "sparingly," a government admission in court later confirmed that little changed on the ground. "A weapon certified for use on birds and animals was being fired into the faces of Kashmiri children and young men," Dayal wrote, emphasizing the absurdity that no ban has followed nine years later.
The human rights defender expressed alarm that this weapon has now traveled 2,000 kilometers to the national capital, marking a dangerous normalization. "It marks an acceptance that a weapon judged too dangerous and indiscriminate even by the government's own courts in Srinagar can nonetheless be aimed against students demanding an education minister's resignation," Dayal stated.
He pointed to the government's knowledge of the incident, evidenced by Federal Health Minister J.P. Nadda's visit to the injured, an "odd courtesy" for men supposedly hurt by nobody. Activists are now demanding a magisterial inquiry with the power to summon RAF and CRPF commanders, an independent forensic examination of extracted pellets, and a public accounting of who authorized this weapon's use in the capital.
"Answerability cannot rest on a Delhi High Court order to preserve video footage alone," Dayal concluded, stressing the need for transparency in times when the government can compel even international social media giants to obey its bidding.
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