CRPF chief has apologised for causing injuries by using pellet guns on stone throwers who were targeting security agencies in Kashmir Valley. What has made the top man to cut a sorry figure using the non-lethal pellets? The whole episode has left a bad taste showing erosion of political authority by the security apparatus in view of the directions from Union Home Ministry. Such utterances of the security apparatus are dangerous and amount to erosion of the political authority of the dispensation. Over hundred young boys have suffered injuries due to pellet guns and there has been hue and cry even Home Minister going impromptu not to use the most nonlethal weapon for crowd controlling. What about around 2,228 policemen and more than 1,100 CRPF personnel injured along with 2,259 civilians in the clashes during the last fortnight of unrest after the killing of militant Burhan Wani? While the civilian death-and-injury stories have seen the light of day, the account of wounded soldiers remains largely undocumented. J and K Police and CRPF personnel are as grievously injured as stone pelting protesters , but the law and order agencies remain so dehumanised by the politics of the Kashmir conflict that it has been difficult for the administration to get their wounded treated in civil hospitals in the Valley. Mob did not even spare the injured who were undergoing treatment for injuries and administration had to shift some of them to military hospitals. Even the miscreants took advantage of the prevailing chaos at some places and some of them lobbed grenades targeting security men of whom a few are still critical. Aren’t security men human beings? The unruly mob didn’t even spare the army hospital especially when this treats more civilian population than army personnel. Last year, it gave free treatment to more than 10,000 civilians. By this time Union Government must have come across the reality and knows that at stake is the coalition’s survival.
