Union Home Minister Amit Shah has lifted all the shadows of uncertainty in the villages vulnerable to the terror assaults with his decision to revive the Village Defence Committees as village Defence Guards to avert the attacks and keep their villages safe, thus saving security forces of their energy and time in such places.
The improvement in the security situation across Jammu and Kashmir, statistically analysed with the decline in the terrorism-related incidents and the killings thereof has its own demands; stabilizing the security situation in the improved state is as important as fighting terror to which Jammu and Kashmir has been a witness for the past 32 years. The military prowess of the militants has been a major challenge, and that has been addressed at several levels, tracing and neutralizing the armed militants, depriving them of the eco-system that protected them. The encounters and the cordon and search operations have become ubiquitous because the security forces have intensified their operations in recent years, particularly after the abrogation of Article 370.
The VDCs or village defence committees were constituted in mid-1990s when the militancy had spread all across the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the villages were inaccessible because of their topography, and hard ways to negotiate to reach them, while the terrorists hiding in the caves and higher reaches could strike at their will. A series of massacres had started taking place in the villages, especially those located in hills. The terrorists would kill people and run away, and by the time forces could reach villages of victims, it was all over. The search for terrorists lasted for weeks, sometimes months.
The idea of VDCs was to mobilize the able-bodied persons, equip them with arms and ammunition and train them to fire and hold the terrorists till the time forces could be alerted to respond to the situations. The idea was to develop a local resistance force to terrorism and terrorists. It achieved the purpose to a great extent as the VDCs would patrol the villages 24X7 and guard their villages, but there was a pitfall as well, the VDC members appeared high on the target list of the terrorists. There were also reservations as most of over 4000 VDC were having members from one particular community, the other community felt threatened.
Over the years, because of the lack of facilities and poor or no pay, the VDCs had become almost defunct. The able-bodied persons of mid-1990s had become aged and lost interest, so they quit as there was nothing in store for them. This created a vacuum as the villages, despite the improved situation, were not off the terror map. The hilly villages had their own set of problems, while the border villages had to be doubly alert as the VDCs were also tasked with checking infiltration from across the border. This multi-purpose force was losing its sheen because there was nothing promising for them.
The Home Minister took the call and an order was issued last night, reviving the VDCs and VDGs, with remuneration of 4,000-to 45000 per VDC member and to reorganize them in a more disciplined fashioned under the supervision of district SSPs.
It will help the villagers to guard their places and maintain a sense of security on their own. Their great advantage is that they know the topography and can assembly at a minute’s notice to defend the place . This will relieve security forces of pressures of guarding all the places and despite improved communication through mobile phones, connectivity remains a problem. And the real-time fact is that the forces cannot be stretched to guard each and every house in the villages.
With this system finding its roots again, the security scenario will change at a rapid scale towards betterment.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
