STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Live and Let Live Society of India (LLLSI) in a press release held that stone pelting is a serious crime and in no case less than ‘attempt to murder’ because some people have died of the stone injuries and many others have received grievous injuries besides financial loss.
President of LLLSI Santokh Singh Komal also said that stone pelting menace is not the aftermath of Burhan Wani’s killing but existed much earlier and had been growing with the cooperation of anti-nationals as well as their sympathisers in the State Government. Instead of taking stern action against these criminals, the government had been soft to these youths and youngsters on the excuse that they opt to such activities due to unemployment he said adding that the State Government went to the extent of calling them as innocents. On this excuse the Kashmir centric government afforded them employment and the crime got boosted. The employment of these stone pelters became talk of the day in Jammu and unemployed youths of Jammu started thinking to adopt this route for securing employment, he told.
Komal contended that the menace which assumed a big volume and went beyond the control of police and security personnel who were asked not to use lethal weapons even in defence, got injured in thousands of number with stones thrown from a short distance with full force. The police and security personnel were then asked to use pellet guns but again their sympathisers in State Government objected to this recourse and sought some soft alternative. Accordingly an alternative ‘Pava Shell’ was tried by the Central Government which did not work as such the security forces had to continue with pellet guns only.
Komal further said that since these stone pelters continued their attacks on police and security forces, they received injuries on their body and even on delicate parts like eyes. These injuries were highly publicised in media on the instance of sympathisers of stone pelters which attracted public sympathy thus encouraged the stone pelting crime.
Komal also said that the stone pelters including minors which earlier used to target police and security personnel have now widened their range and started targeting the private as well as commercial vehicles just for fun sake. “These stone pelters besides causing fatal and grievious injuries to the vehicle operators and the passengers, have also caused loss to the vehicles to the tune of lakhs of rupees and thus for all purposes they rendered themselves as ‘criminals’. These stone pelters are the dreaded enemies of the transport community and therefore the oil tankers resorted to statewide strike which halted the life and the government had to intervene by giving assurances though nothing changed on ground with oil tanker operators being targeted unabated. The crime on their part indeed attracts Section 307 (murderous attack) and Section 302 RPC (murder)”, he maintained.
Komal concluded that these criminals (stone pelters) thoughtfully plan the crime and execute it by reaching up to their targets thus they need to be checked by invoking the relevant clauses of the law taking their injuries as the evidence of their commissioning the crime so that they abstain from such activities. If it is taken lightly it will become a child’s play, a fashion and a hobby in the Valley, he apprehended.
