Village Defence Guards Village Defence Committees | |
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Abbreviation | VDGs |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1996 |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | Jammu and Kashmir, India |
Governing body | Jammu and Kashmir Police |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Elected officer responsible | |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Government of Jammu & Kashmir |
Districts | |
Notables | |
Significant Village Defence |
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Village Defence Guards (VDGs) formerly known as Village Defence Committees is a civilian militia first established in the mid-1990s in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir for the self-defence of locals, especially Hindus, in remote hilly villages against militancy. It consist of villagers as well as police officers. [4]
On 15 August 2022, Government of Jammu and Kashmir accorded sanction to the creation of the VDG. [5] VDG members are paid a monthly remuneration of 4,000-4,500 Indian rupees (US$48-$54). [6]
In the 1990s, according to official data, at least 221 cases [7] including nearly two dozen related to murder, seven to rape, and 15 cases involving rioting were registered against the Village Defence Guards. [6] However, fewer than 2 percent of the defendants were convicted. [8]
As recently as 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) set up new VDCs in Kishtwar district, [4] which has over 3,251 VDC members out of which 800 are armed. [4] In Jammu and Kashmir, there were 4,125 VDCs as of December 2019. [9] The Indian Army conducts training camps for VDCs consisting of weapons training and intelligence gathering basics. On 15 September 2019, the Army trained VDCs in Doda sector. [10] They were mainly set up to protect Hindus and Muslims. [11] [12] Following the killing of a Kashmiri-Hindu Sarpanch in June 2020, former Director General (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir Police said Shesh Paul Vaid that Hindus and Muslims could be armed and Village Defence Committees could be set up with proper planning. [12] As of 28 February 2023, there are over 100 Hindu men armed and provided weapons training in Dhangri, Rajouri. [13] The first VDC was set up under Shesh Paul Vaid when he was a Superintendent of Police (SP) in Bagankote village, Udhampur district (now Reasi district) in 1995. [12]
The insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, also known as the Kashmir insurgency, is an ongoing separatist militant insurgency against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir, a territory constituting the southwestern portion of the larger geographical region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.
Doda district is an administrative district of the Jammu division of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.
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The Jammu and Kashmir Police or JKP is the law enforcement agency of the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir of disputed Kashmir region. JKP was established in 1873 and has primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
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Popular sports in Jammu and Kashmir include cricket, football and winter sports along with sports like golf, water sports, Ice stock sport and adventure sports. The National Winter Games have been held in Gulmarg in 1996, 2004 and 2009. The first Khelo India Winter Games were held in February and March 2020 in Leh and Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir won the most gold medals while the Indian Army team came second with 8 gold medals. The second edition of the winter games were also held successfully in Gulmarg in 2020 with Jammu and Kashmir coming first and Karnataka second.
Shujaat Bukhari was an Indian journalist from the former state of Jammu & Kashmir, and was the founding editor of Rising Kashmir, a Srinagar-based newspaper.
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Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and between India and China since 1959. The Line of Control separates Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and north. It lies to the north of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and to the west of Ladakh which is administered by India as a union territory.
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