J&K: Village Defence Guards get assault rifles to counter terror attacks

Earlier, the Village Defence Guards were only equipped with .303 rifles

Once an important part of the anti-militancy grid in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has once again started the process of arming members of Village Defence Guards (VDGs) with assault rifles in Jammu region.

The development comes in the backdrop of last week’s simultaneous terror attacks in Dhangri village of border Rajouri district where seven people, including two children, were killed and 14 others injured. This is the first time that the VDGs, who were earlier known as Village Defence Committee (VDC) members, have been given sophisticated rifles anywhere in the Jammu region.

Around 40 ex-servicemen living in Dhangri village and identified by a Panchayat-level committee were given self-loading-rifles (SLRs) along with 100 bullets each, officials said, adding that most of them volunteered themselves to act as VDGs.

Sources said the newly armed VDGs have also been deployed along the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts for surveillance as there were reports that militants may take advantage of dense fog in the plains to infiltrate.

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“The VDGs have been activated in many areas of the Jammu region and fresh weapons and ammunition have been provided to them,” they said.

Earlier, the VDCs were only equipped with .303 rifles. There were demands for replacing the outdated rifles with sophisticated weapons to tackle the threat of terrorism more effectively.

The VDCs which were first set up in the mid-1990s in Doda-Kishtwar districts of Jammu region to arm and train villagers to defend against Pak-sponsored militants comprise villagers as well as ex-servicemen.

As per the official figures, earlier there were 4,125 VDCs in the Union Territory (UT) which were trained by the army from time to time in weapons handling and intelligence gathering skills. The members of these committees not only guard the identified villages along the border, but also the infrastructural installations in and around them.

In 2015, the police department had decided to disengage the VDCs members at the age of 60, but later on the intervention of Union minister Jitendra Singh, who is also MP of Kathua–Doda Parliamentary constituency, it was kept in abeyance.