Is shoot-to-disable the new normal? | Explained

Key points

• The story so far The “leg-shot” doctrine appears to have become the new normal in Uttar Pradesh, emerging as a genuine crime-control model that Herbert Packer advocated in 1968, in his work — The Limits of the Criminal Sanction.
• Between 2017 and 2025, the State Police recorded over 16,000 encounter operations.
• In about 97% of cases, the accused survived with a bullet wound to the leg.
• At this scale, the question is no longer whether something unusual happened, but what it means when the unusual becomes routine.
• What is Operation Langda?