Srinagar, Nov 2 (IANS) The Jammu and Kashmir government is mulling to get electroshock guns, also known as Taser weapons, to control mob violence and street protests in the troubled state, a police official said Monday.
“The Taser gun option is being seriously considered. It is less lethal and may be a good option to control protests,” an official told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The move comes as the state police and paramilitary troopers are being strongly criticised for using firearms and tear gas to control mob violence in the valley that has been battling a two-decade old separatist campaign.

Police is to take the dominant role in maintaining law and order situation in the state as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters here last week that the responsibility of maintaining law and order “will increasingly fall on the Jammu and Kashmir police”.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram also said in New Delhi that the central government was keen on “transferring more and more responsibility to the Jammu and Kashmir police and strengthening (its) training”.

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that generates electric current and disrupts voluntary control of muscles, thereby subduing a protester or a fleeing, belligerent, or potentially dangerous subject. The effect is called neuromuscular incapacitation.

But the company, based in the US, says there is “an extremely low risk” of ill effects and the advice is more to do with risk management.

The US-based manufacturer of the gun, Taser International, says in its website that there is “an extremely low risk” in using the weapon but advises forces to avoid firing at chest of the suspects as it can result in heart attacks.

The Amnesty International Arms Commission also recognised “the danger the Taser can mean on certain parts of the body, notably the chest area”.

The Jammu and Kashmir will be the second state in India to order Taser guns after Punjab which has issued its police 80 of the weapons.

Madhya Pradesh and the anti-hijack teams of National Security Guards are also likely to order the weapon, the official said.