Santiago to Shopian and Delhi — pellet guns in crowd control

To understand how we got here, we must look at the history of pellet guns and their use in crowd control. Using them on civilian crowds is a modern nightmare born from an attempt to be ‘merciful’. The blueprint was drawn in 1950s’ Hong Kong. Following the bloody Double Ten riots, colonial police fired wooden baton rounds, or projectiles made of wood, to control violent mobs. The British military improvised further during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In 1970, facing Catholic civil rights protests, soldiers fired rubber and later, plastic bullets. Fired at close range, they shattered bones and skulls. A 10-year-old boy in Derry was completely blinded, and 17 people were killed. Pellet-firing shotguns followed, causing immediate, severe facial injuries.

The weapon travelled the world, almost always finding the fragile human eye. During the First Intifada between 1987 and 1993, the Israeli military fired rubber and plastic rounds directly at Palestinian protesters, starting decades of life-altering eye injuries affecting children. This approach to riot control eventually found its way to Europe. In France, during Yellow Vest protests over economic inequality, police fired heavy rubber-pellet launchers at crowds, leaving protesters with torn ears, shattered jaws, brain trauma, and irreversible eye damage.

During Chile’s 2019 civil unrest over inequality, health agencies recorded up to 445 cases of severe eye trauma. Anger boiled over when a university study proved the supposedly rubber pellets were actually 80% heavy metals. Forced into a corner by blinded citizens, Chile’s military police chief finally suspended their use. Following racial justice protests in 2020, 19 American cities agreed to pay 80 million dollars in settlements to maimed people. Meanwhile, during protests in Iran, shotguns became tools of mass blinding. On January 9 and 10 alone, a Tehran hospital reported nearly a 1,000 patients arriving for ruptured eyeballs, with scans from Mashhad showing metal pellets lodged deep inside eyes.

For years, the police fired these weapons into crowds with no clear international rules. The United Nations finally stepped in with the UN Human Rights Office releasing in 2020 its first-ever comprehensive guidance on less-lethal weapons to fill this void. They realised that governments were deploying these weapons with zero global standards on their design, testing, or use. When it came to metal shotgun pellets, the UN was absolute: they should never be used for crowd control. Because they scatter wildly, it is physically impossible to aim them safely, making them inherently indiscriminate.

India too has a documented history of deploying pellet guns. The pump-action shotguns used by paramilitary forces are made at Rifle Factory Ishapore in Ichhapur, West Bengal. A single cartridge shoots hundreds of high-velocity metal pellets that scatter wildly. Beyond Kashmir, the weapon has surfaced in other civilian protests. During the 2024 farmers’ protests along the Punjab-Haryana border, farm leaders alleged several protesters were injured by pellets, though police firmly denied using them. Similarly, allegations of pellet gun usage during the late 2025 unrest in Ladakh were met with official denials. The weapons were also reportedly used during ethnic violence in Manipur.

On January 12, 2018, then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti informed the state Assembly that 9,042 people were injured between July 8, 2016, and February 27, 2017, during the unrest following the killing of Burhan Wani. Of these, 6,221 sustained pellet injuries.

During that 2016 unrest, schoolgirl Insha Mushtaq was hit by pellets while standing by her window, losing her sight completely. Ten years later, the government finally released funds to help her run a gas agency.

Following the 2016 outcry over Kashmir, the Union Home Ministry formed a committee, deciding that forces must first use chilli shells and stun grenades, keeping pellet guns as a final resort.

Governments worldwide often reach for these weapons hoping to control crowds without killing. But as courts argue over police manuals, for many young people with pellet injuries — from Santiago to Shopian to New Delhi — the reality on the ground remains unchanged.

The writer is Senior Assistant Editor, Indian Express Hindi