DHANGRI: Brandishing a bolt-action rifle, civil servant Sanjeet Kumar is one of 5,000 Kashmiri villagers who have joined all-Hindu militia units armed and trained by Indian forces to fight off attacks.
Delhi has more than half a million soldiers permanently stationed in parts of held Kashmir, as the Hindu nationalist government presses a bid to crush anti-India fighters.
Authorities announced the new militias last year, and a deadly assault in Kumar’s village in January prompted him to sign up. “We were totally terrorised by the attack,” the 32-year-old municipal worker in the electricity department said.
Wearing a saffron-coloured tilak on his forehead to mark himself as a member of the Hindu faithful, Kumar said he was ready and able to defend his home. “Anyone who turns a traitor to our nation is my target,” he added.
India has fought against the freedom groups demanding the Muslim-majority territory’s independence, or merger with Pakistan, in a fight that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The new militia units, known as Village Defence Guards, were unveiled last year in the wake of a string of murders targeting police officers and Hindu residents of India-held Kashmir.
The scheme has been broadly popular among the region’s Hindu residents, but Muslim villagers are concerned the militia will only exacerbate occupied Kashmir’s woes.
“My worry is about the way weapons are now being distributed among only one community,” said one elderly Muslim living in Dhangri, who asked not to be named. “Now weapons are being brandished around by young ones. This is not good for any one of us. I sense a growing tension,” he added.
