Rings of fratricide bell around death of soldier

This week, the Indian Army was rocked by allegations that one of its soldiers, serving along the Indo-Pak border, was murdered, probably by his own colleagues.

Lance Naik Krishnappa Gowda was serving with the Army Services Corps in the Indian state of Punjab. The controversial revelation follows the suicide of another soldier last week, allegedly as a result of harassment by his superiors. Local army officers said that the police is currently investigating the case and those who are guilty will be punished severely, even if they are from the armed forces.

Earlier, the army officials had claimed that Gowda had died during an attack by the Pakistani soldiers. However, the local police personnel, who conducted an inquiry in to the incident, determined that he died as a result of stab wounds, inflicted from close range. Gowda hailed from the town of Beltangady in the state of Karnataka. Relatives of Gowda said that he had joined back to duty last month, after availing a one month leave period allotted to him for his marriage.

Last week, the suicide of one of the soldiers serving with the Indian Army in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir had rocked the defence establishment. Arun Vishwamohan Pillai committed suicide by shooting himself with the service gun issued to him, at his army base in Samba. He was attached to the 16th Light Cavalry Armoured Corps of the Indian Army, which is apparently notorious for incidents of bullying.

After the discovery of the suicide, more than 400 colleagues of the dead soldier surrounded the quarters of their officers and shouted slogans against them. Tensions rose further after the Indian Prime Minister, Man Mohan Singh described the suicide as a “minor incident”. After negotiations failed to resolve the standoff, two units of army were called in from the neighbouring military bases, to remove the agitating soldiers. This is the third major standoff occurring between the jawans and the officers in recent times. Similar standoffs were earlier reported from Nyoma and Gurdaspur.

-via Indian Defence

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