By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Jammu: The death of three people in two incidents within a time span of one week in the hands of Village Defence Committee members has raised tempers in the state’s political and social circle, with calls for its disbanding becoming more vocal.
It all started on Saturday, December 19 when a National Conference youth leader Ishtiaq Choudhary had an altercation with the local ration dealer in Rajouri, prompting the father of dealer, Kewal Krishan, a septuagenarian and a VDC member, to intervene. As matters worsened, the old man, in a fit of rage, went inside his house and brought out his government provided .12 bore gun and fired on the youth, inflicting serious injuries. The youth was rushed to Kalakote hospital, while he reportedly breathed his last on the way.
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While the NC youth murder was still fresh in people’s memory, another incident, the death of a mother-son duo at the hands of VDC member came to fore. On Thursday, December 24, a VDC member, Mushtaq Ahmad, barged inside the house of the 35-year-old woman, Shamim Akhtar in Rajouri and shot her dead along with her four-year-old son, Touheed Ahmad.
The incident has stirred up the debate among people who have been longing for disbanding the controversial group, which also caught attention for its controversial role in 2013 Kishtwar riots. They were alleged of fuelling the tension, but were later exonerated by one-man commission headed by Justice (Retd) R C Gandhi probing Kishtwar riots.
Why was a ‘Civilian Army’ created?
During the peak of militancy in the mid-90s, the idea of Village Defence Committees was first considered in 1995 by the government to provide military training to locals. The locals were equipped with weapons to counter militant attacks, as the militants frequently used villages as their bases. The then Additional Chief Secretary (Home) had accorded sanction to their creation vide Order No. 293-of 1995 with the intention to ‘fighting militancy’. Unlike the much more notorious Ikhwanis, who were ex-millitants that were developed into a pro-government militia, the VDC members were mostly ordinary villagers.
Within one year of its creation, hundreds of villages in around 10 districts of Jammu division and Leh in Ladakh region were trained and provided arms. Some reports suggest that initially the members of both the communities were approached, but most of the Muslims refused to take the offer, partly because many were sympathetic to the separatist cause, while others feared that accepting weapons from the government would make them the target of militants.
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In 2013, the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in a written response to a question in the state Legislative Assembly, had said that 26,567 persons were working with the VDCs in 10 districts of Jammu division and Leh district of Ladakh whereas there was no VDC member in Kashmir Valley.
The highest number of VDC volunteers, 5818, was working in Rajouri district followed by Reasi with 5,730 volunteers and Doda with 4,822 volunteers most of whom are Hindus.
If reports of some newspapers are to be believed, after assuming the reins of power in center last year, the NDA Government led by Narendra Modi has in fact shown an inclination towards hiking its honorarium (since they joined voluntarily) which presently stands at Rs 600 per month.
Dr Jitendra Singh, Member of Parliament from Doda-Udhampur constituency and a Minister of State in PMO, is believed to have taken up the issue with Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh and strongly pleaded for doubling the perks of VDCs. The proposal for hiking the honorarium is presently believed to be worked out by Union Finance Ministry after the State Government showed its inability to bear the expenses due to lack of funds.
Politics over Disbanding
After the latest killing involving VDC members, various leaders affiliated to different political parties have voiced their concern over growing ‘high-handedness’ on the part of committee members.
While referring to VDCs as ‘Village Deshatgard (Terrorist) Committees’, Independent Legislator Engineer Rashid told TwoCircles.net: “My stand has been very clear. VDCs are extra constitutional bodies and thus illegitimate. Successive governments have been giving weapons to a particular community in the state, giving them a chance to commit atrocities. The central government should tender an ‘unconditional apology’ to the people of J&K and immediately disband them.”
During its stint in the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party had, at several times, demanded that the armed committees be disbanded, especially after the 2013-Kishtwar riots. But after it came to power with the support of the BJP, it has, understandably, given the issue a cold shoulder. The BJP, unlike the PDP, supports the idea of VDCs. After Kishtwar riots, when demand for disbanding the armed villagers grew more vocal, the party had threatened to launch an agitation against any such move of the government.
When TCN spoke to the legislators of ruling coalition government from Chenab Valley, PDP and BJP, where VDC members form the bulk, the division over idea of disbanding was clearly visible. “This issue hasn’t been discussed on party level but yes there is need to disband it because arms are in civilian hands and they are unaccountable. Unfortunately, for the last 10-15 years we haven’t been able to streamline this particular system,” Firdous Tak, PDP, Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from Kishtwar told TwoCircles.net.
On the other hand, Bhaderwah, Daleep Parihar, MLA from Bhaderwah, told TCN, “Just because two people fought each other in Rajouri doesn’t mean that all VDC members are to be portrayed in bad light. There is dire need of VDC in the state because militant threat is continuous.” When questioned about the need for arming civilians in the Chenab valley in Jammu division, which has free of militancy, the BJP legislator skipped the question, empahsising that “VDC is still needed” without giving a conclusive answer.
During its recent stint in power, National Conference never tried to touch the sensitive issue of VDCs but after one of its worker’s death in Rajouri, NC has trained its weapons toward VDCs by terming them a threat to life and property of the people and they should be asked to handover the weapons, according to its General Secretary, Ali Muhammad Sagar.
Human Rights organisations express concern
Various civil society groups and human rights organisations have already been pushing their voice for disbanding the VDCs, as they term that they were created illegally and unconstitutionally.
“The militancy in Jammu division declined considerably and I don’t understand the motive of government in leaving guns in villagers’ possessions. The weapons given by government to VDC are being use to harass and settle the internal rivalries between villagers. We have been asking successive governments to disband the VDCs without a second thought to save the life and property of villagers who are being terrified by these VDC’s on the barrel of gun,” Haq Nawaz Nehru, Chairman, International Human Rights Organisation, J&K told TCN.
Another Human rights activist, Abdul Mannan Bukhari even moved a petition to State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in 2013, immediately after VDCs role surfaced in Kishtwar riots.
“VDC’s is a part of State Terrorism. If police is handling the situation single handedly then what is the need of civilians holding arms? I have already filed petition in SHRC to disband and hold an inquiry on excesses done by VDC members in past but as the SHRC have remained defunct last year, there was no development in the case, but I am hopeful there will be development in the case as SHRC has became functional from this year,” said Mannan.
Now, the ball is in the court of BJP coalition partner PDP, who earlier in power with Congress in 2002 had disbanded the notorious state sponsored insurgent group ‘Ikhwan’ and absorbed them in regular forces. Whether the present government disbands VDCs or not will depend upon the equation between coalition partners.