Why Indian Soldier Killed his 5 Colleagues in Kashmir
By Zaheerul Hassan
According to the media reports an Indian soldier has killed five of his colleagues before killing himself in Indian-administered Kashmir. The killing of soldier took place on night February 26, 2014 at a military camp of the Rashtriya Rifles paramilitary force in Safapora village in Ganderbal district about 20km (12 miles) north of the city of Srinagar. The military authority ordered the investigation to determine the cause of the incident, officials said. But preliminary evidence reveals that few days back the deceased soldiers have made an attempt of immoral act against the soldier. Thus to take revenge, he decided to punish his colleagues before going for suicide.
In Indian occupied Kashmir crimes of sexual harassment and moral corruption are on the top as compared to the other border areas of India. Notable, Kashmir is a disputed territory where Pakistani and Indian troops are deployed on 740 km long line of control. Indian has occupied this Kashmir against the in habitants. Resultantly, thousands of people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir since an armed revolt against Indian rule erupted in 1989.
It is mentionable here that the Indian military leadership has not paying any heed to resolve the real problems of soldiers; those are deployed thousand of KMs away from their houses. General reasons in most of the cases of suicide, fighting, depression and killing were; long working hours, poor conditions, inadequate leave and sexual harassment. In this regard a study carried out by
According to BBC and Kashmir Media service,” Hundreds of soldiers and policemen on counter-insurgency operations in India have been killed in similar incidents in the past, with most of the incidents reported in the Kashmir Valley and north-eastern states”.
Again , according to Time of India , On June 3, 2010 , Lt Gen A K Nanda, the Engineer-in-Chief, was asked to put in his papers by then Army Chief Gen V K Singh after a complaint that he molested the wife of a Col rank who was his technical secretary during a visit to Israel.
The report further stated that authorities say since 2009 more soldiers and paramilitary troops have died in fratricidal killings and suicides than while fighting militants and rebels. Although, in September 2012, Defence Minister AK Antony has held a meeting with the military leadership and ordered them to find ways to reduce such incidents but no glaring decline has yet been noticed in the incidents.
In fact, Indian Armed forces are currently fighting against freedom freighters like, Tamils, Sikhs, Maoists and Kasmiris. Their pay package is not enough to cope up their domestic and personal needs .Therefore; they fell into depression when they unable to save enough money to send back to their homes. As per senior former army officers, “a lack of discipline” and “poor leadership” are others contributory factors.
In short, Indian defence ministry should take some steps to settle down the local and regional issues which will automatically contribute in resolving the issues of leave, defence expenditures and moral corruption. Moreover, the strict disciplinary action be taken against those seniors who are involve in the act of moral turpitude.
The writer can be approached through zameer36@gmail.com
