After Rajouri Attack, J&K Administration Speeds Up Weapons Training For Militia Groups

Days after the Rajouri terror assault, the J&K management has began supplying fingers schooling and guns to elevate a armed forces for holding the surge of militancy withinside the Jammu location beneathneath a brand new scheme which changed into accredited with the aid of using the Union domestic ministry final yr.

The management is keeping unique camps in components of Rajouri district, in which the contributors of the armed forces – called Village Defence Guards (VDGs) – are being furnished fingers and different schooling to behave because the “first line of defence” towards the militancy.

“The method is being monitored on the police station stage and, to start with, we’re accomplishing firing exercise for the volunteers,” stated senior superintendent of police (SSP), Rajouri, Mohd Aslam. He stated that if there may be any “inadequacy in phrases of schooling or guns”, “it is going to be addressed”.

The SSP stated that the VDGs are being mobilised in particular withinside the villages which fall alongside the forested regions of Rajouri or are domestic to the minority Hindu network. According to the 2011 Census, Rajouri district has 62.71% Muslim populace whilst Hindus represent 34.54%.

“The usual state of affairs withinside the district has improved (after the assault). We have were given extra forces for vicinity domination that have restored a experience of peace and protection a number of the people,” the SSP instructed The Wire.

The pass comes days after the sensational dual assaults which left seven persons, along with brothers and minors, lifeless in Dhangri village of Rajouri on January 1 and 2. The dual assaults have sparked a wave of suffering and panic withinside the minority network of the Pir Panjal location, that’s rising as a brand new hotbed of militancy.

Over the beyond years, intermittent lethal assaults, each on civilians in addition to protection forces, had been stated from this location, which accommodates Rajouri and Poonch districts. Four navy infantrymen have been killed in a fidayeen assault final yr in Rajouri’s Darhal.

In a sensational case, police additionally arrested Talib Hussain Shah, a BJP activist, in reference to militancy on July three final yr. Although the birthday birthday celebration had distanced itself from the arrest, Shah, who changed into photographed with Union domestic minister Amit Shah, changed into defined with the aid of using police as a “desired terrorist” and “Lashkar-e-Toiba commander”.

The trendy assault in Rajouri has triggered the Union authorities to installation 1,800 extra Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF) jawans withinside the location. Besides vicinity domination, the CRPF can even help the police for schooling the VDG volunteers in primary bodily fight exercising and using automated guns.

Sources stated that six districts in Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal had been diagnosed for the primary section of “re-enrgisation” of the VDGs withinside the Jammu division. Some reviews suggest that VDGs in regions alongside the Line of Control in Samba and Jammu have additionally been placed on alert beforehand of the Republic Day celebrations.

What is a VDG?

The VDG scheme is a brand new avatar of the Village Defence Committees (VDC), a comparable armed forces which changed into raised in Jammu withinside the aftermath of the bloodbath of thirteen Hindus in Kishtwar in 1993. Two years later, the VDC coverage changed into formalised with the aid of using the J&K authorities on September 30, 1995 and notified on October 1, 1995.

Under the vintage coverage, 10 to 15 “ex-servicemen, ex-policemen, and capin a position bodied younger men” have been enrolled in every of the 660 VDCs shaped in Jammu, Doda (along with Kishtwar), Udhampur and Kathua districts. Later, VDCs have been additionally installation in Poonch and Rajouri districts. Official statistics tabled withinside the J&K meeting in 2016 exhibits that 27,924 civilians have been operating as volunteers in 4,248 VDCs throughout Jammu location.

With the militancy in large part last restrained to the Kashmir Valley, a semblance of calm lower back to Jammu on the flip of the century and the concept of the VDCs commenced to show obsolete. However, with guns of their hands, there have been allegations that VDC contributors commenced settling non-public and political scores.

According to reputable statistics, 221 crook instances had been filed towards VDC contributors in Jammu – along with 23 instances of homicide and 7 instances of rape, 15 instances of rioting, 3 anti-drug instances. Charges had been filed in 205 instances.

The vicious aspect obtained with the aid of using the VDCs pressured the authorities to take again guns from a number of the armed forces contributors. Some VDC contributors needed to go back their guns after turning 60, whilst others opted out of the armed forces because of remuneration issues.

The VDCs have been shaped withinside the aftermath of the Kishtwar bloodbath to prevent the “second (out)migration” in J&K after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. The Pandit exodus changed into precipitated with the aid of using communal assaults at the minority Hindu network. After the latest centered killings of Hindus in Rajouri, the management has hastened the method of arming the VDGs.

‘Reenergising VDGs’

Although the very last framework – together with the wide variety of volunteers in every VDG group, the period of schooling and the kind of fingers they may study to use – has now no longer been formalised yet, reassets stated that the method has already commenced with the induction of extra CRPF employees in Rajouri and Poonch districts.

While the vintage scheme expected a paltry sum of Rs 1,500 because the remuneration for the chief of a VDC, it’s been hiked to Rs 4,500 in line with month. The different volunteers gets Rs 4,000 every in line with month. According to reviews, the authorities will offer every VDG with a gun and a hundred rounds of ammunition.

Under the vintage scheme, the VDCs have been led with the aid of using a Special Police Officer, the bottom rank in J&K Police. However, beneathneath the brand new scheme, the VDG corporations may be led with the aid of using an Army veteran or a retired protection reputable who will paintings beneathneath the provisions of the district heads of police force.

The police in Rajouri, reassets stated, is attaining out to the contributors of erstwhile VDCs whose antecedents are being established earlier than their induction into the VDG corporations. “These volunteers may be educated to interact and combat militants until the time protection forces arrive on the spot. They will act because the first line of defence towards militancy,” reassets stated.