New Delhi: In a major development, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will soon start imparting weapons training to the members of the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in Jammu & Kashmir so that they can protect their people and other villagers from terror attacks.
A senior CRPF officer told ETV Bharat on Monday that the force is working on the modalities of the training programme. "The final contours of the training schedule, variety of arms to be included and the number of participants will be decided in due course of time,” the official said.
The development comes days after the terror attacks in Jammu's Rajouri district in which seven people were killed. Following the attacks, J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said that VDCs will be trained in handling arms and ammunition. Assuring people in Rajouri, Sinha said that they would get VDCs on the lines of those in Doda district.
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The CRPF will provide weapons training to the village defence guards so that they can act as a line of defence in case of a terrorist attack. The modalities of this new proposal are still being planned," the CRPF officer said. The volunteers will also be trained in basic physical combat exercise, if required, he said.
Besides giving training to VDCs, a high-level panel of security and administration officials have also deployed fresh companies of the CRPF, comprising about 1,800 personnel, in Rajouri and Poonch for strengthening the security grid following the attack.
The force, as per the officer, may also be asked to render a variety of internal security duties in the Jammu region keeping in mind the emerging terror challenges and the much-anticipated elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which was bifurcated into Union territories following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
