Army adopts Topi Peer village

Rajouri, Jan 12: In a major step towards confidence building, Indian Army has adopted Topi Peer village of Poonch’s Surankote subdivision under its ‘Operation Sadbhavana’.

The village is located adjacent to dense forest cover of Dehra Ki Gali (DKG) between Thanamandi sub division of Rajouri district and Surankote of Poonch. A remote village, with no proper road connectivity, is inhabited by people mostly from tribal communities.

The village came into focus after its three inhabitants were found dead after being picked up by the army for questioning in connection with the DKG terror attack, evoking wide-spread anger among the villagers.

The deceased were picked up along with several other locals for questioning after the December 21 ambush attack on army vehicles in DKG-Bufliyaz forests in which four army personnel lost their lives and many others were injured.

Later, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Rajouri, also met the families of these deceased men in the last week of December. He had assured them of justice. A Court of Inquiry (COI) was also instituted by the army into the incident.

The Topi Peer village has now been adopted by the Indian army under Op Sadbhavana as a Confidence Building Measure (CBM).

During his visit on Friday, the Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi also appreciated the outreach of White Knight Corps to the civilian population by taking an initiative of adopting it as a ‘Model village’ under Op Sadbhavana.

Officials said that the army has devised several developmental works besides social upliftment efforts in the village.