The Kashmir issue is a deep-rooted and unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan that has persisted for 78 years. Since the partition of the subcontinent, the region has endured immense turmoil and bloodshed, primarily due to India’s defiance of the basic principles that guided the partition. This defiance sparked a mass uprising in Kashmir and led to three conventional wars and the Kargil conflict between the two countries.
The people of Kashmir have never accepted what they see as India’s illegal occupation and have consistently resisted it. In response, India has allocated a significant portion of its national budget to suppress dissent and silence opposition to its control. Its heavy-handed and often inhumane approach towards the Kashmiri population has only intensified the ongoing freedom struggle. Today, many Kashmiris continue to sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of self-determination and liberation from Indian rule.
To maintain its illegal rule and suppress the aspirations of freedom-loving Kashmiris, India has deployed over one million security personnel in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). These forces have used a wide range of lethal weapons, inflicting widespread suffering on the lives, dignity, and property of the helpless Kashmiri people. Yet, live ammunition and brutal crackdowns have failed to silence the Kashmiri demand for freedom — only resulting in the martyrdom of hundreds of thousands.
Despite turning the region into an open-air prison, India has been unable to break the spirit of the Kashmiri people, who remain resolute in their just and peaceful struggle for self-determination. Frustrated by its failures — politically, diplomatically, and locally — India has resorted to more sinister tactics. One such tactic has been the deployment of pellet-firing shotguns, deliberately aimed at blinding Kashmiri youth as a means of suppressing public protests against state terrorism in the occupied territory.
The reality of a "pelletised" Kashmir is a heart-wrenching tragedy with no precedent in modern history or in any civilised society. Pellet guns have become a grim symbol of Indian state oppression in IIOJK, used to suppress the popular and ongoing freedom struggle of its people.
It is important to note that these weapons — originally designed for hunting birds and wild animals — have never been intended for crowd control. Yet, the so-called largest democracy in the world is using them to terrorise, maim and blind peaceful and unarmed protesters in IIOJK.
Kashmiris demanding freedom and protesting against the brutal occupation, torture and killing of their loved ones are met with the force of these cruel weapons. The victims include boys and girls, men and women of all ages, and even innocent children. The pellets cause severe injuries, including blindness, broken bones and permanent disabilities. Survivors and their families are left grappling with long-term trauma, psychological suffering, and economic hardship.
For over eight decades, the occupying forces in IIOJK have inflicted systematic violence and have been accused of committing acts that many describe as genocide against the people of the region. Despite this, the spirit of resistance among Kashmiris endures.
Among the many vicious methods used to crush the Kashmiri freedom struggle, the use of deadly pellet guns stands out. Even Israel, despite its harsh policies, has never used such weapons against Palestinians. India itself has refrained from deploying pellet guns in response to anti-state movements in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and other parts of the country. In IIOJK, however, these weapons are used extensively, with the apparent aim of incapacitating the population, especially the youth.
Over the years, hundreds of young boys and girls have lost their eyesight or mobility due to pellet injuries. The Institute of Voice of Victims has collected data on dozens of such victims from various reliable sources. A few of these cases are shared here.
Danish Rajab, a 24-year-old from Srinagar, suffered severe damage to his left eye, which had to be replaced with an artificial eyeball. He still carries 90 pellets in his body and can barely see shadows with his right eye.
Shabkal Nazir Waseem, 25, from Bijbehara, was fired upon indiscriminately during Eid, with approximately one hundred pellets striking his upper body. Two pellets entered each eye, leaving him almost completely blind.
Pellet victim Insha Mushtaq, a teenager from South Kashmir, will never forget the evening of July 11, 2016. As she peered out of her window during a protest, she was directly shot in the face. The 14-year-old was hit by nearly 100 pellets and lost her eyesight forever. Speaking to Al Jazeera, she said, “I just peeped through the window and the policemen, who were outside, targeted me. I fell down and I don’t know what happened to me after that. Everything went dark.”
A young boy, Shahid Ali, was maimed when Indian forces fired volleys of iron pellets at him and his friends as they exited a mosque after prayers. Recalling the traumatic incident, he said, “The last thing I saw was police firing bullets and pellets near the door of a mosque where I was standing. And now everything is dark. Doctors say I have lost my eyesight forever.”
The youngest known pellet victim is 19-month-old Hiba Jan from a hamlet in Shopian. A pellet struck her right eye, tearing a hole through the center of her eyeball and damaging the vital part responsible for vision. Hiba’s mother, Masarat Jan, cried aloud beside her husband, Nazir Ahmed, “I wish the pellet in her eye had hit me.” “She is just a baby, my little baby,” her father sobbed with tears in his eyes.
Children continue to be maimed by the indiscriminate use of pellet guns by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. Eight-year-old Asif Rashid and 13-year-old Mir Arafat were both struck by a barrage of pellets fired by security personnel attempting to disperse protesters in Anantnag. Hundreds of pellets penetrated their bodies, from their faces to their lower abdomens.
Aqib Zahoor, 16, from Pampore, was hit in the left eye by a pellet that pierced his retina, leaving him permanently blind on that side. Mohammad Asif Dar, from Baramulla, was playing cricket when he was shot in the head, shoulder, and chest with pellets. Despite multiple surgeries, he has only 10 percent vision remaining in his right eye. Four-year-old Zuhra Majeed was struck in her legs and abdomen by pellets after her family was targeted by police outside their home in Qamarwari, on the outskirts of Srinagar, on July 10.
On the afternoon of September 18, 2010, Amir Kabir was standing at the gate of a government hospital in Baramulla, clutching his mother’s prescription, when a sudden thud blinded him forever. Then an 18-year-old student in class 12, Amir is one of many Kashmiri youth who have completely lost their eyesight due to pellet injuries. He is considered fortunate to have survived.
In 2010, the year pellet guns were first introduced, teenager Irshad Ahmad Parray and 20-year-old Mudasir Nazir lost their lives — early casualties in a tragic chapter that continues to unfold.
Hamid Nazir Bhat, a 16-year-old boy from Palhalan in north Kashmir, lost his right eye due to pellet injuries. Another 16-year-old, Suhail Ahmad Bhat, was blinded in his right eye when police fired pellets during a protest. Farooq Ahmad Malla, a 22-year-old resident of Hajin town in north Kashmir, was completely blinded by pellets on March 17, 2014. Faizan Ahmed, a class 8 student, suffered pellet injuries in his eye and was also shot in the head by a bullet.
Activists like Insha Mushtaq, who was blinded at age 14, have become powerful symbols of resistance, drawing global attention to the crisis. Kashmiris appeal to the world, saying, “If they are shooting at our eyes and blinding us, then why can’t you see the truth?”
The rate of eye injuries caused by pellet guns has been staggering. Medical professionals warn that many Kashmiris will lose their eyesight due to shotgun injuries, as protesters are often targeted above the waist, especially in the face. In acts of brutal retaliation, pellet guns have even been used at close range, firing all pellets directly into a single protester.
According to Médecins Sans Frontières, thousands of eye surgeries related to pellet injuries have been performed. Ophthalmologists at local hospitals in Srinagar describe complex surgeries to extract pellets from eyes, which often still result in permanent vision loss.
Occupation forces have even barged into ambulances, assaulting injured individuals and their attendants. Hospitals have been attacked and medical staff harassed. The high number of young victims affected by these crowd control measures — particularly the targeting of young boys, women, and children — speaks volumes about the inhuman tactics employed by the occupying forces.
Doctors of Government Medical College Srinagar staged a unique and silent protest inside the college, covering one eye with a bandage to represent hundreds of victims who have been blinded due to pellets during the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
As a result of decades long Indian hegemony and use of pellet guns in IIOJK, there is an alarming level of mental health disorders. Doctors without borders have observed that 45 per cent adults in the Kashmir Valley are suffering from symptoms of mental distress, 41 per cent face depression, 26 per cent display anxiety, and 19 per cent are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). New research on pellet victims of Kashmir Valley conducted by the Government Medical College in Srinagar draws a grim picture of the mental health situation in the Valley. According to this report, at least 85 per cent of pellet victims have developed psychiatric disorders. This adds an unending cycle of restlessness, pain and misery to the people of occupied state.
The current state of law in IIOJK grants officials of armed forces and security agencies impunity for even the most serious human rights violations, including the current pellet attacks and direct gunfire at the crowd. The atrocities being committed by occupation forces continue unabated due to an understandable silence of the international community and human rights organisations. This silence has encouraged India to pursue her policies of repression and oppression in IIOJK.
Despite condemnation from human rights organisations and international bodies, including the United Nations and Amnesty International, who have declared the use of pellet guns a violation of the principles of proportionality and necessity under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force, Indian occupation forces continue to deploy these weapons. Both the European Union and the United Nations have called for a ban on pellet guns, but India insists on their necessity. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has described the shotgun “firing metal pellets” as one of the most dangerous weapons used in Kashmir and has called for an immediate halt to its use for crowd control.
Balancing security concerns with human rights demands urgent action: banning pellet guns, investigating abuses, and investing in non-violent methods of conflict resolution. Addressing Kashmir’s deep-rooted political grievances is essential for achieving lasting peace.
The black laws currently in force in IIOJK give Indian armed forces a license to kill and maim Kashmiris using pellet guns. This comprehensive analysis underscores the urgent need for policy reform and humanitarian consideration in the region. Condemnations of pellet firings come not only from international human rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International but also from Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders, civil society activists, human rights defenders, and conscientious voices within India.
The United Nations and the international community must take a proactive role in urging India to stop using pellet guns on peaceful protesters and to abandon its imperialistic policies aimed at suppressing Kashmir’s legitimate desire for freedom. Pellets are blinding and maiming Kashmiris. India should be compelled to honor United Nations resolutions calling for a permanent settlement of the long-standing Kashmir issue.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat is the Chairman of the Institute of Voice of Victims
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the author