Former J&K DGP counters NYT report about 'armed villagers' of Kashmir
1 min read . Updated: 11 Mar 2023, 07:50 PM IST
PremiumFormer J&K DGP SP Vaid dubbed it an attempt by ‘international forces backing terrorism’ to ‘float a false narrative’.
A recent report suggesting that civilians were being armed by the government in Jammu and Kashmir has prompted a sharp rebuke from officials. Former J&K DGP SP Vaid dubbed it an attempt by ‘international forces backing terrorism’ to ‘float a false narrative’. The New York Times report suggested that the village defense committees had made a comeback in recent months following a 'series of bloody attacks against Hindus'.
“This article like many others is an attempt to paint the present Indian Government as communal, Hindu nationalist with a muscular policy out of a simple attempt of reactivating existing Village Defence Committees," he asserted.
The former DGP said that the first VDC had been set up by him as the Bagankote SSP in 1995. At the time, there had been a Congress-led central government and Jammu and Kashmir was under Governor's rule.
“As per government order, VDCs were to have its members from all communities irrespective of religion," he wrote in a Twitter thread.
Vaid said that civilians had been armed with .303 rifles for “protection" until reinforcements could arrive. The move was prompted by ‘terrorists resorting to massacres of civilians, particularly Hindu minority’.
“In hilly regions, villages are for and wide spread where reinforcements could take a couple of hours to reach, it was imperative to arm the civilians for self defense," he recalled.
According to the NYT report, thousands of volunteers are now being rearmed. The militias fall under the command of the district’s police leadership, with each group reportedly being led by a retired army officer. Security officials were taking stringent measures to keep any potential abuses in check.
The report also flagged what it dubbed the ‘selective arming of villagers’. It cited local Muslim leaders to add that ‘only Hindu groups had been armed’.