Discarded for hunting, Pellet Gun preferred weapon against Kashmiris

The 'deadly' Pump Action Shotgun or Pellet Gun is nowadays a preferred weapon against the street protesters in Kashmir. But a 19th century British army officer had discarded its use even for hunting because of the large scale causalities the pellets caused on the prey.
The officer, who hunted migratory birds in Wular Lake, was so disheartened at the massacre of the waterfowl that he pledged never to use the gun again.

THE ANECDOTE
The incident dates back to around 1880 when General Dunlop, a British Army Officer from the then neighboring India came to Kashmir for holidaying. He was putting up in the Dal Lake here at a houseboat.
One day the houseboat owner, Ghulam Rasool Tuman aka Lassu, offered General Dunlop a safari ride for hunting of migratory birds in the Wular.
General Dunlop was to use a Punt Gun, a then version of shotgun. The pellets hit the target. Dozens of birds were lying dead, scattered in the lake. But the British officer was upset. He was disheartened by the large scale killing of birds.
“This gun leads to massacre of birds. This is inhuman. I will never use it again,” General Dunlop told Lassu.

NEW AVATAR
The new avatar of the Punt Gun, the Pump Action Gun is being used to quell street protests in Kashmir. While the government projects the pellet gun as a Non-Lethal Weapon (NLW), at least three persons have died of the fire while hundreds have been injured.
A single shot, as per observers, fires numerous tiny particles hitting multiple targets in one go. The medicos treating the pellet victims in Srinagar find it deadlier than bullets.
The doctors say not only the treatment was more complicated than that for a bullet injury, but the damage caused by the pellets was even more killing.
The doctors have been revealing gory tales of the patients as they battle for life.
The pellet cases have shocked the doctors more so because apparently the victims don’t have any big wounds like that in case of a bullet injury.
“Pellets apparently go unnoticed. The entry mark is so small that if patient doesn’t complain of pain the wound could be neglected and ultimately prove more lethal,” the doctors say. “The wound is barely of the size of mosquito bite.”
But the damage is big. Medicos at SK Institute of Medical Sciences said the pellets have resulted in “devastating injuries to patients as almost all their organs were involved.”
The doctors in trouble-torn Kashmir have over 20 years of experience in treating the firearm cases. This makes them observe that the pellets are deadlier. “A bullet hits one or two organs but a pellet damages multiple organs that too with multiple perforations,” said a surgeon.
Till now, of the three persons killed by pellets, one of the victims was a close relative of senior separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik.
In the latest assault at Bemina on September 24, a JKLF leader Showkat Bakshi and his family members were amongst those targeted by the pellet gun.