Village guards open fire after noticing suspicious movement in J&K’s Rajouri, Search operation on

JAMMU: A group of Village Defence Guards (VDGs) opened fire on noticing suspicious movement in a village in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir and search operation are on in the area, officials said on Tuesday.

According to officials, "A group of VDGs noticed two unidentified persons near the house at village Meira (Mehra)-Nagrota of Rajouri district on late Monday night. On this VDG members fired in air following which a search operation was initiated by security forces in the area," they said.

Officials said, "Joint team of security forces cordoned off the village extended the search operation to adjoining villages this morning and the operation is currently ongoing with forces on high alert to prevent any potential threats.

The original name of the VDG was Village Defence Committee (VDC) and the VDCs were formed in Jammu region to offer self-defence capabilities to villagers in the face of continuous terrorist threats.

Under the scheme, each VDC used to have a Special Police Officer (SPO) as its in-charge and there were 10-15 other volunteer members, mostly ex-service personnel who were given .303 rifles and ammunition. The SPO in charge of the VDC was paid whereas the rest were volunteers.

In 2020, the policy of Village Defence Committees was revamped and Village Defence Groups were introduced, members of whom are called Village Defence Guards (VDGs) and the revised scheme was notified on August 14, 2022.

In the VDC scheme only SPOs were paid but after 2022, all members of VDGs are being compensated financially by the government.

Officially, a total of 4,153 Village Defence Groups (VDG) and 32,355 Special Police Officers were engaged in Jammu and Kashmir in different responsibilities for the protection of civilians and anti-terrorists operations.