JJ says fragging a big challenge; calls for corrective action

Srinagar, Nov 3 (UNI) Army Chief General J J Singh today called for taking proactive measures to analyse and address the causes that led to the fratricidal killings in the armed forces in the recent past.

''This is a big challenge...And I am sure we will overcome this one in the similar way we have faced all other challenges in the past,'' Gen Singh told journalists here.

He said a court of inquiry has been ordered into every such case.

''The Army itself is going into the causes that triggered such incidents...For a 1.3 million Army, five cases of fragging in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past is not an indicator that things are wrong,'' Gen Singh added.

Fragging is an Army term for soldiers turning their weapons on their colleagues.

He said being a professional organisation, the Army would take whatever corrective action needed to overcome this challenge.

''We are most concerned with these unfortunate cases, especially in counter insurgency areas. Suitable measures are being taken and institutionalised to prevent recurrence of such incidents,'' the Army Chief added.

Earlier, Gen Singh had instructed senior Army commanders to assess and investigate each of the seven fratricidal killings in one month and to come up with corrective measures.

Since the past one year, as many as 12 cases of fratricidal killings have taken place in the Army, mostly in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to the incidents, Defence Minister A K Antony said in view of the rising number of fratricide and suicides in the armed forces, the Army was trying new methods to address the problems of soldiers and stress.

Mr Antony said he had discussed the issue with Army commanders and they were trying to resolve the problem through new methods.

The fratricide incidents have forced the Army to deploy more counsellors to certain areas where such cases occurred. On an emergency basis, 50 counsellors were being trained, 40 to be despatched to formations in Northern Command, which encompasses Jammu and Kashmir, and 10 to Eastern Command.

In the past 10 days there have been four cases of distraught soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir fatally shooting colleagues, then committing suicide.

On October 31, sepoy S C Behera of 28 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) killed his company commander, Lt Col Saket Saxena, at Dara in Harwan area on the city outskirts.

A soldier, Satyam Kumar, shot dead his senior colleague, Havaldar Padma Rajan, and wounded another jawan by firing from his service weapon while on duty at the Udhampur Military Garrison, the Northern Command headquarters, in the Jammu region on October 29.

On October 21 on the day of Diwali, a soldier shot dead three colleagues and wounded two others before attempting suicide in Rajouri district of the Jammu region.

On October 23, a trooper shot dead two colleagues before ending his life in the Rajouri district while a soldier committed suicide in Poonch district of the Jammu region on the night of October 27.

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