Rajnath Singh approves use of chilli-filled shells for crowd control in Kashmir
The use of chilli-filled grenades as an alternative to pellet guns, which will be used in the rarest of rare cases, was cleared by home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday for crowd control ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation led by him to restive Kashmir on Sunday.
The use of chilli-filled grenades as an alternative to pellet guns, which will be used in the rarest of rare cases, was cleared by home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday for crowd control ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation led by him to restive Kashmir on Sunday.
The home minister cleared the file for use of Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide (PAVA) also called Nonivamide as an alternative to the pellet guns, official sources said.
They said as many as 1,000 shells would be reaching the Kashmir valley on Sunday.
During his two-day visit to Kashmir on August 24-25, Singh had said an alternative to pellet guns would be given to security forces in the coming days.
Pellet guns are, however, will be used in “rarest of rare cases”, they said.
The use of PAVA was recommended by a seven-member expert committee, headed by joint secretary in the home ministry TVSN Prasad, in its report submitted on August 29.
The panel was constituted after scores of protesters were blinded by the use of pellet guns in the Valley.
The Kashmir valley is witnessing unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8.
‘PAVA shells’, chilli-based ammunition, is less lethal and immobilises the target temporarily.
The ‘PAVA shells’ were under trial for over a year at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory in Lucknow, and its development has come at a time when Kashmir is on the boil.