Brandishing a bolt-action rifle, civil servant Sanjeet Kumar is one of 5,000 Kashmir villagers who have joined all-Hindu militia units armed and trained by Indian forces to fight off rebel attacks. India has more than half a million soldiers permanently stationed in the parts of Muslim-majority Kashmir it controls, as the Hindu nationalist government presses a bid to crush a decades-long insurgency. "We are ready whenever we are called," says Sanjeet Kumar, a village defence guard in the remote village of Dhangri where the attacks occurred. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES