VDC members fire precautionary gunshots after suspicious movement in J&K's Rajouri

Jammu, Aug 27 (IANS) After noticing suspicious movement, the members of the village defence committee (VDC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district fired precautionary gunshots, said officials on Tuesday.

The incident took place late Monday evening. The officials said the suspicious movement was observed in the Meira village of the district, and the VDC members resorted to aerial firing.

“The VDC members fired precautionary gunshots after which the security forces launched a CASO (Cordon & Search Operation) in the area. Till last reports came in, no contact (exchange of gunfire) with the suspected terrorists was established,” the officials said.

After reports of a group of 40 to 50 hardcore foreign terrorists managing to sneak in, the J&K Police have strengthened the VDCs in the Jammu division with the DGP R.R.Swain saying that the VDCs would be provided automatic weapons to protect their villages against the terrorists.

The Army also revised its counter-terrorism strategy by deploying over 4,000 specially trained soldiers, including the elite Para commandos and those trained in mountain warfare in the hilly districts of Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi districts.

These soldiers have been deployed inside the densely forested areas of these districts with the objective of depriving the terrorists from carrying out ambush attacks against the Army, security forces and civilians.

Terrorists had been carrying ambush attacks in the hilly areas of the Jammu division and then disappearing into the forests.

The revised strategy by the Army and the security forces is aimed at depriving the terrorists of using the element of surprise during their attacks on the security forces.

The VDCs were formed in early 2000 in the Jammu division of J&K to combat militancy with civilian support. In remote areas of the districts of the Jammu division, VDCs helped guard villagers and their families from the militants who were believed to be entering houses and forced the inmates to give them shelter and food at gunpoint.

The fact that the VDCs were not properly trained and that they were given First World War vintage 303 rifles made them ineffectual before the modern automatic weapons wielded by the militants. It is exactly to address this shortcoming of the VDCs that the J&K Police has decided to provide better weapon handling training and automatic rifles to the VDCs.