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In Kashmir, stress is a soldier's enemy
Troops on high alert in remote terrain
Suicide, fragging claim scores of lives
Dec. 9, 2005. 01:00 AM
SHAIKH AZIZUR RAHMAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
CHENNAI, Indiaâ â€Soldiers patrolling the highest battlefields in the world are suffering post-traumatic stress after long periods of anti-insurgency service along the Line of Control separating Indian Kashmir from Pakistani territory.
There have been about 30 incidents of fragging â †the deliberate killing of officers or colleagues by soldiers â †since 1989, according to official statistics.
"But the actual figure must be higher," said one Border Security Force commandant who recently served in Kashmir for three years. "Many more fragging instances are covered up for reasons of insurance payments â †and out of respect for the dead soldiers' families."
The Times of India reported this week that more than 100 soldiers have committed suicide in Kashmir so far this year. Last year, 100 soldiers killed themselves and in 2003, 96, the daily reported.
"It is a fact that accidents caused by job-related stress have been taking place among the soldiers in Kashmir. Before the situation takes an alarming shape, we have to be serious to check the trend," said Lt.-Gen. Srinivasa Pattabhiraman, the Indian army's vice-chief of staff.
A recent murder-suicide brought the problem into focus. An inquiry found officer Santosh Kumar shot dead three soldiers, then turned the gun on himself because of undue stress.
The army inquiry team, which included a doctor and a psychiatrist, said Kumar, who was posted in the insurgent-infested border district of Rajouri, was suffering from sleeplessness.
The three junior officers murdered after an argument with Kumar also suffered from stress-related illnesses.
"Situations often force them to long duty hours in remote, inhospitable and mountainous terrain," said an army officer in New Delhi. "To add to that there is long separation from home. These are the major causes of the stress."
Army units in Kashmir typically move after two years to a "peace location," where they can reunite with their families. But since the mid-1990s, a surge in the Kashmir insurgency has led to the premature recycling of troops back along the Line of Control.
"Army and paramilitary personnel in Kashmir, often in a rage, end up killing many innocent people," said Altaf Ahmed, a legal activist in Srinagar, who says stress is often to blame.
A doctor at an army hospital at Udhampur in Kashmir says many soldiers "continue to show signs of mental disorders even months after being relieved of their duties in Kashmir."
Letters from soldiers to their families, intercepted by army authorities, point to the level of trauma.
"I no longer want to continue the service, I am getting tired," one junior army officer wrote to his wife earlier this year.
"We are trained in conventional war to guard our country against a foreign army. But here we are forced to fight an unconventional war against the insurgents who are sneaking in quietly and can strike at any place, any moment."
A 20-year-old Border Security Force soldier wrote to his mother: "Duty is so stressful here you cannot imagine.
"If I knew that I would be posted to this Kashmir, I would have never joined this force."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1134082212240
Troops on high alert in remote terrain
Suicide, fragging claim scores of lives
Dec. 9, 2005. 01:00 AM
SHAIKH AZIZUR RAHMAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
CHENNAI, Indiaâ â€Soldiers patrolling the highest battlefields in the world are suffering post-traumatic stress after long periods of anti-insurgency service along the Line of Control separating Indian Kashmir from Pakistani territory.
There have been about 30 incidents of fragging â †the deliberate killing of officers or colleagues by soldiers â †since 1989, according to official statistics.
"But the actual figure must be higher," said one Border Security Force commandant who recently served in Kashmir for three years. "Many more fragging instances are covered up for reasons of insurance payments â †and out of respect for the dead soldiers' families."
The Times of India reported this week that more than 100 soldiers have committed suicide in Kashmir so far this year. Last year, 100 soldiers killed themselves and in 2003, 96, the daily reported.
"It is a fact that accidents caused by job-related stress have been taking place among the soldiers in Kashmir. Before the situation takes an alarming shape, we have to be serious to check the trend," said Lt.-Gen. Srinivasa Pattabhiraman, the Indian army's vice-chief of staff.
A recent murder-suicide brought the problem into focus. An inquiry found officer Santosh Kumar shot dead three soldiers, then turned the gun on himself because of undue stress.
The army inquiry team, which included a doctor and a psychiatrist, said Kumar, who was posted in the insurgent-infested border district of Rajouri, was suffering from sleeplessness.
The three junior officers murdered after an argument with Kumar also suffered from stress-related illnesses.
"Situations often force them to long duty hours in remote, inhospitable and mountainous terrain," said an army officer in New Delhi. "To add to that there is long separation from home. These are the major causes of the stress."
Army units in Kashmir typically move after two years to a "peace location," where they can reunite with their families. But since the mid-1990s, a surge in the Kashmir insurgency has led to the premature recycling of troops back along the Line of Control.
"Army and paramilitary personnel in Kashmir, often in a rage, end up killing many innocent people," said Altaf Ahmed, a legal activist in Srinagar, who says stress is often to blame.
A doctor at an army hospital at Udhampur in Kashmir says many soldiers "continue to show signs of mental disorders even months after being relieved of their duties in Kashmir."
Letters from soldiers to their families, intercepted by army authorities, point to the level of trauma.
"I no longer want to continue the service, I am getting tired," one junior army officer wrote to his wife earlier this year.
"We are trained in conventional war to guard our country against a foreign army. But here we are forced to fight an unconventional war against the insurgents who are sneaking in quietly and can strike at any place, any moment."
A 20-year-old Border Security Force soldier wrote to his mother: "Duty is so stressful here you cannot imagine.
"If I knew that I would be posted to this Kashmir, I would have never joined this force."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1134082212240
