AHMEDABAD (India) May 26: Radical Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council) plans to distribute special daggers called Churikas to female volunteers, a VHP leader said on Monday.

“We are planning to distribute the Hindu symbol Churikas to girls interested in becoming part of the Hindu brigade,” said Meena Bhatt, general secretary of the VHP women’s wing in the western state of Gujarat.

“We have been contemplating this for a long time and may begin the practice soon.”

Bhatt said the Churikas were small curved daggers to be worn at the waist by female cadres.

“It would be given to them at a cost, which is yet to be decided. This will make them lifelong members,” she told AFP on the sidelines of a VHP camp in Gujarat’s Kheda district, where around 125 women are being trained in martial arts and rifle shooting.

The VHP has a martial wing for women volunteers called Durga Vahini or Durga’s Vehicle — named after a mythical Hindu goddess who slayed demons — which has so far trained around 4,000 women in martial arts.

Special training camps teaching martial arts such as judo and karate have attracted around 1,200 women from across Gujarat, where last year widespread sectarian riots broke out after a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists.

During subsequent clashes about 2,000 people were killed, mostly Muslims, according to human rights groups.—AFP