In the first case of fratricide in the Army this year, a soldier allegedly shot dead two of his colleagues and then killed himself in Dharamshala Cantonment, Himachal Pradesh on Monday morning. A court of inquiry has been instituted to find the cause leading to this action. This is the seventh case of fratricide in the last five years.
The incident took place at 2.30 am when a soldier of 18 Sikh fired at two of his colleagues and then shot himself with his rifle. He had joined the Army six months back. While a probe is on to ascertain the reason for this extreme action, unconfirmed reports said Sepoy Jasbir Singh was posted on guard duty. He had altercation with the other two after returning to the unit and shot them with his INSAS rifle. The soldier then committed suicide. The two soldiers were identified as Havaldar Hardeep Singh and Naik Harpal Singh. They had finished 23 years and 18 years of service respectively, it was learnt.
The local police besides Army officials reached the spot and the bodies of soldiers were taken by the police for postmortem, sources said.
This is the first such incident in the Army this year where a soldier has killed his colleagues. Three such cases were reported in 2014, one in 2015, two in 2016 and one in 2017 besides the latest case. Incidentally, more than 100 service personnel committed suicide in 2016 due to issues like stress due to operating in high-pressure areas like insurgency-hit Jammu & Kashmir and north-east. However, the latest incident of fratricide took place in Dharamshala, a peacetime military station, sources said.
In an effort to address these serious issues, the defence ministry some years back initiated several steps including liberal leave facility for jawans to take care of their families mostly living in rural areas of the country. The State Governments were also urged to mitigate the problems faced by families of the jawans mostly relating to disputes regarding land and other such matters.