The Jammu and Kashmir government has begun formally arming the ex-servicemen among Village Defence Guard (VDG) members with semi-automatic rifles in the Rajouri district of Jammu, the move raising fresh questions after a panicky VDG member opened fire needlessly on Monday.

The member who fired at what he seems to have mistakenly presumed to be militant activity was not an ex-military man, and his weapon was the .303. However, the incident, which caused no injuries, underlined the fears many have expressed about the government arming untrained or poorly trained civilians.

The government’s move to provide the VDGs with semi-automatic weapons comes at a time Rajouri’s Hindus have been fearful following a militant attack that killed seven Hindus and injured many others in Dhangri village.

The VDGs, launched in March 2022, already have some 30,000 members in Jammu, mostly in the Muslim-majority districts where they are largely drawn from the Hindu community. So far, the VDGs had been issued with .303 rifles.

An official said the government had on Tuesday handed over 40 SLRs (self-loading rifles) to ex-servicemen who have volunteered to work as VDG members. More rifles will be given in the coming days and weeks, he said.

Dhangri sarpanch Dheeraj Kumar thanked the government for fulfilling the village’s demand and hoped that more weapons would be provided

All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference chairman Shafiq Mir, who is from Rajouri, said any move to arm civilians would have dangerous consequences.

“The government should instead deploy more security forces, including the CRPF and the BSF, in the sensitive areas. Giving arms to unorganised civilians will have its consequences,” he said.

The Union home ministry has asked the CRPF to keep an additional 1,000 personnel on standby to be sent to Jammu and Kashmir, if needed.

The Dhangri killings and their aftermath threaten to deepen the communal fissures in the region.

Security forces have arrested dozens of suspects during nine-day-long searches in Rajouri and Poonch districts, angering the detainees’ families who are seeking their release.

Tensions thickened on Monday evening after a VDG member fired in an open area in Muradpur village after a woman told him she had noticed suspicious activity. Officials said no militants were found in the area.

The government has deployed 18 new CRPF companies in the Pir Panchal districts of Rajouri and Poonch following the Dhangri attack. CRPF men were seen training VDG members at some places.

Many fear that arming civilians could lead to misuse of the weapons. Scores of FIRs are registered in Jammu’s districts against members of the now defunct Village Defence Councils (VDCs), which preceded the VDGs, for alleged murder, rioting, rape and drug peddling.

The VDCs, created in themid-1990s, became defunct after the financial assistance to their civilian members stopped. The VDGs have been promised a monthly honorarium of Rs 4,500 for the leader and Rs 4,000 each for the other members.