April 12, 2017 , A video of a jawan of the Indian security forces being kicked in the Jammu and Kashmir valley has gone viral online.
Reacting to the incident, Bhavesh Chaudhary of the CRPF said that even if someone slapped you, the first reaction would be to retaliate. However, our jawans have shown patience even though they had been armed, praised Chaudhary.
The soldier was reported to be from the CRPF who was returning from a polling booth when he was kicked by a civilian. Although, the jawan showed complete restraint and did not retaliate in any manner. This has happened despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly appealing to the Kashmir youth to refrain from violence. Earlier, while inaugurating the Chennai-Nashri tunnel in Kashmir, the Prime Minister had said, “I want to talk to the youngsters of Kashmir. On the one hand, we have some youngsters who pelt stones, on the other hand, we have the youngsters from the same society who are building tunnels.”
Clashes between the security forces and the protestors in the region have been quite common. The stone pelters have interrupted the operations by security forces in the regions, often leading to casualties on the Indian Army’s side, which have been fatal in a few cases.
Meanwhile, the Army had last year recommended the use of less lethal weapons to disperse crowds, such as pepper shotguns and chilli grenades. Earlier on April 10, the Supreme Court which was hearing a petition against pellet guns informed that the government was working in some secret weapons to replace pellet guns. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who was from the Central government’s side also said that there were options that the government was mulling. Rohatgi also told the apex court that the Centre was exploring other options like rubber bullets, instead of pellet guns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTOgdULn5g
