Forward Bloc supporters head for the district collectorate in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday for the law-violation programme. Picture by Biplab Basak

Calcutta, Feb. 5: The bullet wounds of Dinhata suggest that police fired indiscriminately, flouting guidelines for controlling and dispersing mob, senior officers in Calcutta said.

Those killed or injured had bullet injuries above the waist — in the chest, hands, neck or the back.

Guidelines clearly say the purpose of firing is to disperse a mob and not to kill, a senior officer said. “If people were hit in the back, it means they were fleeing. If the police fired on people who were fleeing, it was illegal.”

Quoting from the manual, an officer said the police could open fire only if a baton charge failed and options like lobbing tear gas shells and firing rubber bullets were exhausted.

According to the book, “controlled firing” must be used to disperse a mob.

“The police should declare an assembly unlawful on the public address system and give enough time for the people to disperse. If they don’t disperse, they have to resort to a lathi charge and other non-lethal options,” the officer said.

One of the five killed today was shot in the nape of the neck. Two of the injured were hit in the back.

“It is obvious that they were running for cover. All of them were also hit above the waist,” the officer said.

The guidelines say a person has to be first shot in the leg if the situation turns violent. “In that case the possibility of death is minimal. Something must have gone wrong for the police to have opened fired in that way. It seemed pretty indiscriminate,” said a senior IPS officer.

He said the police should have shown more restraint. “Instead of firing live ammunition, they should have used smoke grenades that would have made a noise like explosives but not taken lives.”