The fratricide incident that shook Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday also elicited the attention of veterans in Uttarakhand. Veterans believed that long and tough duty coupled with domestic and other tensions triggered such kind of incidents in the field areas of the Indian Army.
In an exclusive interaction with The Pioneer, the leading psychiatrist of the town, Maj (Retd) Dr Nand Kishore said that couple of reasons like tension, stress, long and rough duty hours in the tough terrains etc could force person to take such kind of harsh steps during his duty hours. Besides, lack of proper communication and family pressure and
emotional breakdown forced person to kill someone before ending one’s life.
Dr Kishore stressed that alcoholism also played very pivotal role in suicidal thoughts in one’s brain. According to him, in otherwise healthy people, such thoughts are often brought about by a sudden, unexpected, and usually negative change in life circumstances and sleep deprivation that can be the result of having a very late bedtime or being unable to go to sleep is just one lifestyle issue that can increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
He strictly stressed on the counselling, especially those forces who are posted in tough terrains areas of the country. Expressing his views over the incident, Brig (Retd) KG Behl, former district president, Dehradun Ex-Services league said that the lives of forces in the tough hilly terrains of the country were very harsh with irrational duty timing hours.
He said that lack of communication or confrontation among colleagues in an inebriated state over petty issues triggered such kind of incidents in the field areas. Brig Behl said that the social and economic status of the other ranks have also improved over the decades and they have started comparing themselves with those working in MNCs in the country. According to him, regular counselling of other ranks, timely sanctioning of leave, short duty hours could be proved fruitful for curtailing such incidents in the near future. A soldier shot dead five of his colleagues before turning the barrel of his service rifle on himself inside an Army formation at Manasbal-Safapora in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. The incident, the first case of fratricide in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 took place in the dead of night around two o’clock when the sentry Sepoy Ranvir Singh went berserk inside the Rashtriya Rifles camp.