Armed forces strengthen security shield as steel bullets emerge again
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 21
Alarmed over recovery of steel piercing bullets at the Shopian encounter site where Jaish-e-Mohammed’s top commander Sajjad Afghani was killed, the security forces in Jammu & Kashmir have strengthened the bullet-proofing shield of their vehicles and bunkers with an extra layer of protection for blunting such penetrative fire.
Officials in the security establishment said the forces had recovered 36 rounds of armed steel-core bullets, which have the capacity to pierce the normal protective gears used by the troops, particularly in south Kashmir area.
Can pierce through normal shields
- Steel bullets that can pierce through normal protective shields were recovered from terrorists during an encounter in South Kashmir recently
- The bullet, termed Armour Piercing, is built of hardened steel or tungsten carbide
Sensing the danger posed by such ammunition used by terrorists, the officials said now the vehicles, especially deployed in south Kashmir, and personnel moving for anti-terror operations are equipped with shields which have “an extra layer of protection for blunting such penetrative bullets”.
It is also learnt from the sources that the ammunition is generally used in the AK series rifles, which the terror organisations, active in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), modified them with the help of Chinese technology of encasing bullets with hard steel core. The bullets, which have Armour Piercing (AP) capacity, are built of hardened steel or tungsten carbide, they said.
The first incident of use of “steel core” bullet was noticed on the New Year’s Eve of 2017 when JeM terrorists had carried out a suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Lethpora in south Kashmir.
Five paramilitary personnel were killed in the attack and one of them was hit by a bullet fatally despite using a static bullet-proof shield provided by the Army.
Normally, the bullets terrorists use in their assault rifles have a lead core covered with mild steel which cannot penetrate a bullet-proof shield, but after the December 31, 2017, encounter and a detailed analysis, forces had to change the way they protected themselves, the officials said.
