Two more Indian soldiers commit suicide in IOK

SRINAGAR: Two more Indian military soldiers committed suicide in Kupwara and Poonch districts of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) on Friday.

According to reports, a soldier of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle in Kupwara district on Friday afternoon. The deceased was identified as Head Constable Kundan Ram Kumar, aged 38 of 169 Battalion.

Reports suggested Kundan ended his life by shooting himself with his service rifle at the Brinwari area in the Kupwara district.

Meanwhile, another soldier identified as  Mohit Kumar, aged 46 of 39 Rashtriya Rifles, shot himself with his service rifle in a Mankato Sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu region.

Earlier, a Sepoy, Prince Kumar (25), shot himself at Chinar camp in Rehambal   Udhampur (IHK) with his service rifle on January 17, 2020. He was a resident of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, posted in the 112 Territorial Army and was on guard duty.

According to a report, the incidents of suicide raised the number of such deaths among Indian troops and police personnel in IOK to 466 since January 2007.

An Indian Army official said most of the suicides occur while on duty and often in occupied Kashmir or in the North East.

“The suicides are wrongly devolved to problems back at home. The nexus between suicide and duty stress cannot be ignored. Caste-based discrimination, poor leadership skills, supercilious, or even outright callous attitude of officers, also, exacerbate the problem”, he added.