REASI: A week-long firing practice to hone the skills of 5,547 village defence guards (VDGs), including 20 women members, began in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district on Tuesday, a senior police officer said. Reasi Senior Superintendent of Police Mohita Sharma said the VDGs being a force multiplier are considered as first response to thwart any nefarious designs of anti-national elements in the remote areas. She said the VDGs are professionally untrained but highly committed for self and community defense against terrorists equipped with sophisticated arms and have proved themselves as a wall of defense against militancy in remote hilly inhabitations in Jammu region. “Under this exercise all VDG members are called at the nearest firing butts of their areas and fire practice has been done after cleaning and zeroing their weapons,” Sharma said, adding the VDG members are swarming on firing butts with zest and zeal, and are excited to check their capabilities in firing with their .303 rifles. Considering it an important exercise for those who did not check their weapons and fired for a long time, the SSP said that a schedule of one week will be helpful for the 5,547 members, including 20 women, who are deployed in their own villages for safety and security of the villagers. “Since the VDGs play a pivotal role in safety and security in the villages, to rejuvenate them, it is necessary to exercise and practice the firing by their weapons which can only be done with such exercises from time to time. The police will conduct many other exercises with the involvement of VDG members of the district in future,” the officer said.
