Thread by @SaffronDiaries

🔴ADDING #Hindutva OIL TO ALREADY BURNING #KASHMIR

The #IndianGovt is arming thousands of civilians in the #Jammu, one of the world’s most militarized places, showing the limits of PM @narendramodi more muscular approach to controlling the region.
#Hindutva #RSS #Kashmir

Many villagers have been equipped with automatic rifles and given defense training for #terrorist attack” scenarios, according to officials. It comes amid a recent uptick in violence against the region’s #Hindu minority.
#rssterror #Kashmir @narendramodi @AmitShah

The decision to revive the groups originally set up in the 1990s was taken by the authorities in March 2022, but the training was ramped up following an attack in #Dangri, a remote village in the #Rajouri district in southern Jammu. @BBCWorld @AlJazeeraWorld @ndtv @timesofindia

On the evening of January 1, as the villagers were preparing for dinner, two gunmen indiscriminately opened fire at a row of residential houses in the village which falls close to the #LOC. Four civilians were shot dead.

A day later, while the villagers were mourning the deaths, two children aged five and 12 were killed in an explosion close to one of the houses targeted the day before. Several people were also wounded in the incident and a seventh civilian succumbed days later.

The incident sparked protests among the residents. It also gave rise to the demands of reviving and regrouping the #VillageDefenseGuards (VDGs), previously known as the #VillageDefenseCommittees (VDCs).

Local political parties in #Kashmir have long been wary of the idea of handing military weapons to civilians. According to police records, there have been 221 documented cases of abuses like murder, rape and extortion since the militias’ formation in the mid-1990s.

Security officials said that they were taking measures to keep any abuses in check. Villagers, who are paid about $50 a month for the job, are being armed only after stringent background checks.