DREADED AMMO : ''INDIA FIRES CLUSTER''

IN a major escalation in the ceasefire violations, India has begun using cluster munitions on civilian population living close to the Line Of Control [LOC].

The use of cluster bombs on the Neelum Valley over the past many days has caused multiple fatalities and injuries to several others, including students/small children.

Over the past few years, besides a spike in terms of intensity of ceasefire breaches, India has also resorted to calibre escalation and airspace violations along LOC.

The use of cluster bombs is therefore a step further towards escalation in the situation along LOC.

Use of cluster munitions has been banned by 102 countries, most of which are signatories to the  ''Convention on Cluster Ammunition'', because of concerns that the weapon causes disproportionate civilian casualties.

Some of the unexploded bomb-lets released from a cluster bomb may remain unexploded and may kill or maim civilians even years afterwards.

The size of bomblets varies from four to five inches and because of their shape - resembling a soft drink can or an orange - villagers refer to them as ''toy bombs''.

Although cluster bombs are designed as anti-personnel and anti-armour weapons, innocent civilians are mostly their primary victims and of them 40 percent are students/children who are drawn to the small, toy-like metal objects.

Cluster bombs are believed to be deadlier than landmines, which is why the 2008 Convention On Cluster Munitions - adopted in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, and signed in December 2008 in Oslo, Norway - prohibits their use, production, stockpiling and transfer and requires states to ensure that they claim no further victims.

The World Students Society condemns most vehemently the use of Cluster Bombs, and even all types of munitions in the world, and thanks author and researchers Baqir Sajjad Syed and Tahir Naqash.