Bhatinda shooting: What is fratricide and why do such incidents occur

The Punjab Police has ruled out a terror angle into the Bhatinda Military Station attack in which four jawans were killed.

The probe has so far shown that there is no terror angle in the shooting. Their reason for the killing is suspected to be fratricide.

The question now is what is fratricide and why such incidents take place in the security forces. Between 2014 and 2021, there have been 18 such incidents that have taken place. One was reported in the Indian Army and two in the Indian Air Force.

In July 2022, two Army men were killed and two others were injured in a fratricide incident at at Army camp in Surankote, in the border district of Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir.

Cases of fratricide are however reported more in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), when compared to the Indian Army, Air Force or Navy.

In all 29 CAPF personnel were killed by their colleagues in the past five years, the data provided by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai to the Lok Sabha revealed.

Fratricide is an act of intentionally or unintentionally murdering a sibling/siblingsand in the case of the armed forces, it means to kill friendly troops serving with you.

Some of the main reasons for commit such an act is due to personal reasons, domestic problems, family issues, depression and work-related issues.

The government has taken several steps towards stress amelioration amongst troops, which, inter-alia, include deployment of trained psychological counsellors, improvement in the quality of food and clothing, training in stress management, provision of recreational facilities, buddy system, leave concessions, approachability of seniors, facilities for movement of troops from border areas and establishing a grievance redressal mechanism at various levels, etc," Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt had told the Lok Sabha.