After sending 18 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for deployment in Jammu following killing of seven minorities, plans are afoot to further strengthen the security grid in the area by erecting more check posts and providing training to the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) through the CRPF.
The VDCs will be trained in handling and operating arms for self defence in case of any exigency. The CRPF is preparing a training module for the self defence course along with arms training, officials said.
Training and arming the VDCs is not a new idea but, of late, the practice was discontinued owing to peace in Jammu division. Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir police used to train the committee members for such a defensive cause, they said.
The move comes amid Intelligence input about the possibility of more terror attacks in the Jammu region. Following this input, the Union Home Ministry ordered mobilisation of more forces for deployment in Jammu.
Six people, including two children, were killed and many others injured in two separate terror attacks in Upper Dangri village in Rajouri district on January 1 evening and early next day. Later, an injured victim succumbed to the injuries on Sunday, taking the toll to seven. On January 3, two minors were killed and several others injured after a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded in Upper Dangri village and another IED was spotted in the area near the village which is about eight km from Rajouri town. The explosion took place near the house where four civilians were killed and many more injured by terrorists in a targeted shooting incident on January 1.
Incidentally, it was a former VDC member who fired from his long-unused weapon to force the terrorists to flee without inflicting any further damage. About a dozen people were injured in the two terror attacks. In the terror attack on January 1, two armed terrorists barged into three homes separated by a distance of around 50 metres from each other and opened indiscriminate fire. The attack led to the killing of four civilians and injuries to six others. On December 16, two persons were killed outside an Army camp in the third such terror attack in Rajouri district.