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Rebuke From Officer Makes Soldier Commit Suicide

By Fayaz Wani

An Indian para-military soldier committed suicide after being rebuked by an officer in the summer capital of restive Kashmir Valley. Colleagues of the dead soldier staged a demonstration and demanded action against the official.

A para-military, CRPF soldier identified as Gajendar Singh shot himself with his own service rifle in a room inside his camp at Karan Nagar, in downtown Srinagar this afternoon. His colleagues rushed to his room after hearing the gunshots. However, by the time they reached his room, he was already dead. The deceased soldier was 42 years of age and had joined the para-military force in 1985.

Sources said that his senior rebuked the soldier over some "lapse" and he took it badly, entered his room and shot himself.

After the incident, the colleagues of the dead soldier staged an open demonstration against the officer identified as Shri Jaiswal. The soldiers alleged that their officer is behaving rudely with them and has been throwing verbal abuses on them with no reason or justification. "This morning he rebuked and abused the soldier and in a fit of anger, the soldier shot himself dead", the agitating soldiers said. They demanded that action be taken against the officer.

It was the first time during the 18-year-old militancy in the state, that para-military soldiers staged a protest demonstration against their senior officer.

DIG CRPF M P Nathaneal, while confirming the incident said that a court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain as to why the soldier committed suicide. "The soldier had not left any suicide note and as such we have launched investigations to know the reasons why he took this extreme step", he said.

Meanwhile, an Indian army soldier deployed in Kathua in Jammu province was found dead in his room.

Identified as Sepoy Balbir Singh, he had come on leave from North East Indian state of Assam last week and was staying with his family in Toda check village of Hiranagar Kathua. He had visited his in-laws for a day and returned back home Wednesday night.

A team of police officers, who visited the spot, said it appeared that the soldier had committed suicide.

Doctors conducted the autopsy on his body and the report is being prepared.

An army spokesperson confirming the death of the officer said that an inquiry has been launched to investigate the matter.
The incidence of suicide and fratricide in the army and para-military forces and police deployed in Kashmir is on the rise. More than three dozen Indian security personnel deployed in Kashmir have committed suicide this year.

To reduce the fratricide killings and suicides among soldiers, the Indian army and para-military introduced several measures including psychiatric counseling, conducting of yoga and stress-management classes for soldiers.

Experts say long absences from the family, with danger lurking everywhere as they go out on patrols and counter-insurgency operations, puts enormous strains on the soldiers, pushing some of them to commit suicide. Soldiers are now allowed to talk with their family members, on the phone, regularly. These measures have not had much positive impact, as the soldiers deployed in Jammu and Kashmir still commit suicide.

Fayaz Wani reports on life in Srinagar, Kashmir.