Protester suffers injuries from pellet guns; shock batons used
Allegations of pellet-gun use during a protest march to Parliament raise questions on riot-control proportionality, civilian injury, and policing norms in Delhi.
- The Rapid Action Force is described as using pellet guns and shock batons for riot control.
- The Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, denied claims that security forces used pellet guns against peaceful protesters.
- Shaikh Irshad Mansoori underwent surgery to remove pellets from the upper part of his body, and one pellet near his neck could not be removed because of its proximity to a blood vessel.
A protest march to Parliament linked to the Cockroach Janta Party has brought renewed scrutiny to riot-control weapons used by security forces in Delhi. Allegations that a protester suffered pellet-gun injuries and that a woman was stunned by a shock baton have raised questions about the proportionality of force in crowd management.
What happened
A source at Lady Hardinge Medical College said at least one of the roughly 80 injured during the Monday march to Parliament had pellet-gun injuries. A friend of the injured man, identified as Shaikh Irshad Mansoori, said he was hit near Palika Bazaar in Connaught Place by a Rapid Action Force (RAF) jawan in uniform.
UPSC may frame this as a public-order and internal-security issue: the legal basis, operational necessity, and human-rights limits of pellet guns and other less-lethal weapons; accountability for injuries; and the balance between maintaining order and protecting the right to peaceful assembly.
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