India reactivates network of village guards in occupied Kashmir

• India is reviving a network of thousands of village guards in IOK.
• Militants murdered seven members of a Hindu community in a rural village.
• Delhi accuses Pakistan of inciting bloodshed there; Islamabad disproves this claim.

Srinagar – A police official stated that following a militant strike in the disputed area earlier in January that left seven civilians dead, India is reviving a network of thousands of village guards in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and arming some of them with automatic rifles.

New Delhi has fought a decades-long armed insurgency in Kashmir and accuses its archrival Pakistan of inciting bloodshed there; Islamabad disproves this claim.

After militants murdered seven members of a Hindu community in a rural village in Jammu’s Rajouri district on January 1, authorities reactivated a mostly inactive network of 26,000 Village Defence Guards (VDGs).

“We are re-grouping and rejuvenating the VDGs who were already there,” local police chief Haseeb Mughal told Reuters.

“There was slackness after years of normalcy in the region and now we are training and reorganizing them to prevent any such attacks. We have also provided automatic rifles to some.”

“The way the situation is developing they should provide more such weapons and training,” Thakur said.

Former IOK’s chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said, “Placing weapons in the hands of locals of border districts in Jammu region contradicts the government’s claims of normalcy.

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