Author:
Publication: AFP
Date: July 12, 2002
Rightwing Hindu organisation has
begun training women in the use of guns and daggers in parts of Kashmir
to prepare them against attacks by Muslim militants.
The Kashmir chapter of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is spearheading the training project, said
the response had been overwhelming in the southern zones of Kashmir where
most of the Hindus of the Muslim-majority region live.
"The response to our arms training
programme from village girls has been bigger than from urban areas," said
50-year-old Pankaja, head of the women's wing of Kashmir's RSS chapter.
She, however, said that Hindu women
living in Jammu were less enthusiastic about the programme than their counterparts
in other towns of southern Kashmir.
RSS activists have already trained
at least 300 teenage women to fire rifles, fight with daggers or swing
axes and wooden staves, Pankaja said, adding the martial arts would come
in handy during attacks by Islamic guerrillas.
Some 30 women and children have
been killed by the rebels in Jammu region alone this year.
The Kashmir RSS said it had enrolled
young and able-bodied women at state-run camps for displaced Hindus in
the frontier districts of RS Pura, Samba, Bishnah, Kathua and Ramgarh for
a one-week training programme. Similar programmes are also on in the remote
southern Kashmiri districts of Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah,
the RSS said in Jammu -- the state's winter capital.
"I plan to visit the militancy-infested
areas of Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah where arms training to teenage women
would be given," said Pankaja.
The Kashmir state administration
has already put in place what is known as Village Defence Committees of
armed volunteers to hold back militants during attacks.
Women volunteers of the RSS-backed
drive said arms training helped them in re-building their nerves frayed
by 13 years of militancy which has left more than 35,000 people dead in
the Himalayan state.
"After I received training in rifles,
knives and axes, I feel confident that I can now ward off terrorist strikes,"
said Avni Kumari, 18-year-old college girl and resident of Doda district.
Sunita Sharma, 15, said: "The Indian
government should also introduce arms training programmes for women in
terrorist-infested areas of Jammu region. After training, we too can be
recruited in VDCs. We have to train ourselves in meeting any threat from
these Islamic terrorists." "Once we are fully trained in handling rifles
and other weapons we can help the Indian army and other security agencies
in eliminating infiltrators who have their first halt in the villages close
to the LoC," Pankaja added
