Bal Krishan used his rifle after 24 years and it helped drive away Pakistani terrorists in Rajouri

New Delhi, Jan 04: Had it not been for the bravery of this shop owner who used a rifle after 24 years, the catastrophe in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir would have been much worse.

On January 1, in the evening Bal Krishan, 42 had returned home from his cloth shop when he heard gunshots. He picked up his rifle and rushed out when he saw two terrorists moving around in the neighbourhood. He said that they were very near his house. I then opened two rounds of fire and the terrorists panicked and fled to the nearby forests, Bal Krishan said.

Bal Krishan owns a cloth shop at the chowk in Dangri, a village near Rajouri town.

The terrorists had gone on a killing spree and had targeted four homes following which four persons were killed and six others were injured. They then ran int Bal Krishan, a former Village Defence Committee member. The police and Upper Dangri panchayat sarpanch Darshan Sharma said that had it not been for Krishan's quick thinking the casualties would have been far worse.

After Krishan started shooting the terrorists fled into the forests. This helped the villagers come out and attend to the injured persons, Sharma said.

Krishan was using his gun only for the second time. The first time he used the .303 rifle was in 1998-99 at an arms training camp that was conducted by the Army after he and the other VDC members were given guns by the J&K police. Krishan said at that time they were given the gun and 100 rounds of cartridges each. During the training camp, I used 10 and I was left with 90 bullets.

He said that the the rifle was more of a 'danda' at home in the absence of a licence. He said that it had been unused for 24 years.

The VDCs were set up in 10 districts in Jammu and Kashmir in the mid-90s during the height of terrorism. The VDCs gradually lost their clout amidst allegations of highhandedness and misuse of weapons. Successive governments since 2002 encouraged members to return their weapons.

Krishan said that since he was under 60, the police asked him to submit a passport sized photograph at the Rajouri police station, so that a gun licence could be issued to him. He said he is yet to get a gun licence. The police asked me to go to the station with the weapon and after examining the same, the gun was returned to me with instructions to keep it clean. He said he never imagined that the weapon would come in handy and help him save so many lives.