Stone-pelters should be shot dead: BJP MP

Lieutenant General (Retd.) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP Dr. D.P. Vats on Monday said that the stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir should be shot dead.

Dr. Vats said on Saturday, "I read about the withdrawal of cases against stone-pelters but I think those pelting stones should be shot dead."

On June 7, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review the security situation in the state announced that all stone-pelting cases against children in Jammu and Kashmir will be withdrawn.

Speaking at the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Conclave in Srinagar, Rajnath said, "When I was in Delhi, I met Afshan Ashiq (Kashmiri Footballer) and she told me that she had been a part of stone pelting incidents earlier, but ever since she got into sports, her life was turned around. Sports can bring a change in your lives. Children can be misguided easily but we know the truth that is why we have withdrawn all stone-pelting cases against them."

On a related note, the Jammu and Kashmir government had approved the withdrawal of cases against the first offenders of stone pelting in February this year.

State agricultural minister Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, while replying on behalf of Minister for Home informed: "that the government has approved the withdrawal of cases registered against first-time offenders during the period 2008-2017, on the basis of recommendations of the committee constituted by the government".

He said these include 61 FIRs involving 530 persons of Shopian.

Hanjura also informed that 4,066 FIRs have been registered against 14,208 stone pelters during the last three years in the Kashmir Valley.