Indian government has said that over 900 members of Indian Army-backed Village Defence Guards (VDGs) were imparted training in Rajouri district of Jammu region, last month.
This was stated by the Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, while responding to a written query in Lok Sahba, the lower house of the Parliament.
He said the Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has imparted training to 948 Village Defence Guard members in collaboration with District Police Rajouri from 6th January to 25th January, this year.
Pertinently, over 5,000 members of the VDGs, majority of them Hindus, have been given rifles and more are being provided with arms in Rajouri district in the last few weeks. There are around 28,000 VDGs in the Jammu region. As the weapons have been issued to the VDG members without any regulations and control mechanism, mishandling and misuse of guns remain a matter of serious concern.
There are more than 200 FIRs related to the cases of murder, rape, rioting and drugs registered against the VDG members in various districts.—KMS
