By coming up with the idea of raising a 'voluntary force', Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed appears to be emulating the late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed.

The Bakshi, who was the prime minister of the state from 1953 to 1964, had raised a 'peace brigade' and used it to keep his opponents on a tight leash.

The brigade, which comprised volunteers, had earned notoriety for 'political misadventure and use of brute muscle against adversaries', a local editor said.

"The only difference will be that the Bakshi's brigade had no rifles; it had batons and since times have changed, the Jammu and Kashmir Voluntary Force [of the Mufti] will wield automatic weapons," he said.

The new force will accommodate most of the special police officers who were attached to the Special Operations Group, which the Mufti had promised to completely disband.

It will also have members from village defence committees.

A member of the JKVF will be paid Rs2,500 per month, Rs1,000 more than what an SPO or a village committee members gets, a police officer said.

They will also be trained for three months in counter-insurgency operations, he said.

"The objective of the new scheme is to create a voluntary force of citizens committed and motivated to fight the militants... We will raise the force from the existing 22,000 SPOs and VDC members," the officer said.

The government also wants to revitalise the VDCs, which were formed during the tenure of Farooq Abdullah. The committees were formed in the Jammu region and the government, according to sources, intends to extend the experiment to the valley.

Allegations of extortion, murder and rape have been levelled against the SOG and VDC members. "Converting them into a voluntary force will be nothing short of selling old wine in new bottles," said a local.

When the Mufti was in the opposition, he used to criticise the National Conference government for 'letting loose the SOG on innocent Kashmiris'.

Police officers believe that the 'voluntary force' will take away 'some of the deadly sting from the name under which these people operated till now'.