Jammu, Nov 7 : Two members of a village defence committee (VDC) were kidnapped and killed by terrorists in the forest areas of J&K's Kishtwar district on Thursday, officials said.

"Two VDC members, identified as Nazir Ahmad and Kuldeep Kumar, were kidnapped and killed by terrorists in the forest areas of Kishtwar district. Bodies of the slain VDC members have been recovered and a massive search has been launched to trace their assassins," an official source said.

VDCs were set up by the J&K Police to prepare locals in far-off, remote areas to protect their families from the terrorists.

Initially, the VDC members were given .303 rifles, but these have now been replaced with automatic weapons to better equip the villagers against the terrorists.

In the far-off areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Doda, Kathua, and Udhampur districts, the terrorists regard the VDC members as the eyes and ears of the security forces. For this reason, the VDC members often become the first victims of the terrorists.

There are reports of a group of foreign mercenaries operating in the hilly areas of these districts, and they are held responsible for a number of attacks and ambushes in these districts. It was to counter this strategy of the hit and run of the terrorists that over 4,000 highly trained Para commandos and those trained in mountain warfare have been deployed in the forests of these districts.

The terrorists in the hills of these districts are known to carry out attacks on the sly and the intelligence agencies believe that overground workers (OGWs) of various terror outfits provide logistic support support to these terrorists. After the security forces reviewed and revised their counter-terrorism strategies, the capacity of the hiding terrorists to carry out ambush attacks has largely been compromised, intelligence agencies believe.

/IANS