New Delhi: The Army chief has ordered an investigation into several cases of soldiers turning their weapons on their colleagues in Kashmir, officials said Thursday.
In the past 10 days there have been at least four cases of distraught soldiers in Kashmir fatally shooting colleagues, then committing suicide.
General J J Singh, the army chief, ordered the probe on Wednesday after the latest incident, in which an soldier shot and killed his unit commander one day earlier, said an army spokesman, Vijay Joshi.
"The inquiry will go into the circumstances which led to the shooting in Srinagar," Joshi said.
Certainly some of this is about simple opportunity: soldiers have ready access to dangerous weapons. But military officials say 17 years of violence in Kashmir are taking their toll on soldiers.
During Diwali, a soldier in Kashmir shot dead four others, then killed himself with his AK-47 assault rifle. The army gave no reason for the shooting, but news reports said the soldier had been refused leave to visit his family over the holiday.
The Army has an estimated 700,000 soldiers in Kashmir. "This is an insurgency-wracked area. Soldiers operate in an environment where they are not sure about the future. This situation generates a lot of stress, and sometimes results in these kinds of incidents," said Col Hemant Juneja, an army spokesman in Srinagar.
Other changes may also be contributing to the pressure on troops. The military, long a high-status profession, has been eclipsed by the far-better-paying jobs in the private sector.
But prolonged deployment in dangerous situations is the largest factor in increasing stress levels, says Brigadier Harwant Singh, a retired army officer.
"In terrorist- and militancy-affected areas, the potential presence of terrorists in close proximity takes its toll," said Brig Singh. "This makes them edgy, resulting in some taking the extreme step of either shooting themselves or their superiors whom they perceive to be the cause of all their miseries."
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Military experts also say that the army is becoming "overstretched" with soldiers having to do long spells in difficult areas. The solution, they say, lies not in increasing the size of the army _ already among the world's largest with more than 1 million soldiers _ but in training paramilitary troops to take over some of the duties now left to the army.
"The army can then keep its powder dry for its real task," said retired Gen Ashok Mehta, a military commentator.
The new inquiry will help pinpoint what plays on soldiers' minds when serving in tough areas, and what could help keep them calm.
In Srinagar, the army spokesman said soldiers were being taught yoga to help them cope.
After a spate of similar shootings in the early 1990s, the Army had reformed its rules, easing conditions for leave and salary hikes for soldiers serving in difficult areas, General Mehta said.
"It's time for a re-look at these issues. Clearly, more reforms are needed," he said.
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