of watchmen. It was at a much latter stage that they were asked to collect hard intelligence in mountainous plains and green meadows.
By the time, the VDCs started becoming news it already was an ‘army’. Of around 28865 volunteers that state government has armed and deployed across Jammu region, a local NGO recently said 12709 are in the Chenab Valley, and more than 95% of them are Hindus. Every VDC has one special police official (SPO) attached who is paid by the police on monthly basis but is not an employee of the organization. So far 131 VDC members were mowed down as 55 were injured across the state.
