Rubber bullets not for Gujarat mobs: Police  Deependra Jha [ Thursday, May 18, 2006 12:24:04 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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AHMEDABAD:
After the experience of 2002 post Godhra violence and the recent Vadodara riots
where a man fell to police bullets, the Gujarat police still seem averse to the
idea of using rubber bullets to deter a riotous mob.
Some years ago, the Bureau of
Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Delhi, recommended the state
government to consider the use of rubber bullets.
An inspector general rank
officer from Gujarat was commissioned to study riot control methods and had
recommended using rubber bullets in the initial phase of a riot to control mobs.
But senior officers feel that
these are impractical ideas dropped from above. "Such ideas are sent from Delhi
without knowing the ground realities here," says former Gujarat DGP M M Singh.
Sources say at one point of
time they had considered using rubber bullets, but the idea was dropped later.
"Rubber bullets were tested on trial basis, but were found to be ineffective.
Right now, there is no
proposal to purchase rubber bullets for the state police," says DIG Sanjay
Srivastava, in-charge of purchase. "It depends on the crowd. The crowd mentality
in India is different from that of the US.
Even crowd mentality in
Gujarat is different from other states," says a top official from the police
department.
Some people argue
that although these bullets are intended to inflict superficial painful injuries
on rioters, in some cases, rubber bullets used by police maim and even kill.
"The purpose is to evaluate
the situation on the spot and find ways to pacify the crowd. Police can either
do it without raising their hand or may have to use bullets," Singh
adds.
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