Click to play videoNew Delhi: Troops outside the Army's Harwan fortification on the outskirts of Srinagar appeared anxious on Tuesday.
A soldier on Tuesday turned his assault rifle on his officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sharad Saxena, killing him in a hail of gunfire. Both were serving in a Rashtriya Rifles counter-insurgency battalion.
But it's not just foot soldiers in Kashmir who were anxious. There's increasing concern among the Army's top brass about soldiers running amok.
Fragging is to wound or kill a fellow soldier |
In the last 10 days alone, there have been four cases of soldiers shooting soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. Is protracted deployment in counter-insurgency operations taking a toll on the Army?
"We are taking corrective measures wherever required and ensuring that no more lives are lost in the future," says Chief of Army Staff General JJ Singh.
The Army is unwilling to concede that fragging is a symptom of combat stress, which may have accumulated in the course of the protracted conflict in J&K.
A recent in-house study reveals that most cases of suicide and fragging have occurred soon after troops returned to Army duty from leave.
It suggests that troops who go over the edge are severely troubled by domestic issues they are unable to resolve.
The Army maintains that combat stress cannot be increasing when violence levels are actually dipping in J&K.
Nonetheless, the spate of fratricidal shootouts has forced Army Headquarters to make more psychological counselors available to combat formations in J&K and stress better man management. But there's increasing awareness that family welfare could be the key to the Army's stress management.
Recent cases of fragging |
September 13 |
 Major Harsh Kumar, hailing from Jaipur and posted with a Rashtriya Rifles unit, was shot dead by a Naik-clerk Ravi Kumar at an isolated post in Thanamandi area. |
October 21 |
| Sepoy S K Rabha kills three of his colleagues and injures two others with his service weapon in Naria area of Rajouri district. |
October 23 |
| Naik R Lingum, serving in 60 Rashtriya Rifles, kills two of his colleagues with his service rifle before committing suicide at Budhal in Rajouri district. |
October 28 |
| Signalman Satyam Kumar kills colleague, havaldar Padamrajan, and injures sepoy Balwan Singh when he open fires with his 5.56 mm INSAS rifle at an Army camp in Rehambal area in Udhampur district. |
(With Mufti Islah in Srinagar)
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