Home Ministry panel to look for pellet gun alternative

New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) Following the furore over severe pellet gun injuries to protesters in the Kashmir Valley, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday approved the formation of an expert committee to explore alternatives to pellet guns as non-lethal weapons.

The seven-member expert committee would be headed by the ministry's Joint Secretary T.V.S.N. Prasad, officials said.

The members of the expert committee are senior officials from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Jammu and Kashmir Police, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) Chandigarh, apart from an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor.

These are Atul Karwal (CRPF), Rajeev Krishna (BSF), Rajesh Kumar (J&K Police), Tushar Tripathy (OFB), Manjit Singh (TBRL) and professor Naresh Bhatnagar (IIT, Delhi).

The committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.