India
Practice Relating to Rule 11. Indiscriminate Attacks
India’s Police Manual (1986) prohibits the use of indiscriminate force against civilian rioters and demonstrators.
India’s Army Training Note (1995) orders troops to “avoid indiscriminate firing”.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the
Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, India stated that “the very purpose of international humanitarian law is to forbid indiscriminate attacks and demand protection of civilians”.
The Report on the Practice of India states:
When [the armed forces] are called upon to deal with an internal conflict, they are bound to follow the principles regarding distinction between military objects and civilian objects so as to avoid indiscriminate attacks. The armed forces are instructed that when they provide assistance to civil authorities in dealing with internal conflicts, they must avoid indiscriminate use of force … The regulations addressed to armed police contain elaborate provisions aimed at avoiding indiscriminate attacks.
In 2008, in a statement on the situation in Gaza, the official spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated:
The Government of India had hoped that military action by Israel against targets in the Gaza strip would abate. It is disappointing to note that the use of disproportionate force is resulting in a large number of civilian casualties on the one hand and the escalating violence on the other. This continued use of indiscriminate force is unwarranted and condemnable.
In 2012, in a statement during a UN Security Council open debate on the Middle East, the permanent representative of India stated:
Indiscriminate violence not only puts the lives of civilians in real danger, but also leads to a vicious cycle of violence. We condemn all these attacks that cause harm to the civilian population and damage civilian infrastructure, and call for their full cessation.