Tweet
Originally posted by Garuda
View Post
Already India has its presence well entrenched in afganistan ....this is not the time for indian army to be postioned there ...a real dirty fiercesome guerilla warfare is going on in afganistan and teh wounded NATO wants a scape goat to be deployed as a surrogate for its combating teams .....so u want india to become a scape goat and take the full brunt of casualities ??????.....
patrolling in a war zone like afganistan is different than maintining peace in UN controlled zones ....
kindly read the passage below ---indian army is over streched ,already we have a impending battle in bangladesh ....secure ur own country first and then venture into some adventures
India's army is investigating several recent cases of soldiers fatally shooting their colleagues in the country's insurgency-wracked portion of Kashmir, where years of heavy fighting are taking their toll on stressed, isolated troops.
In the past 10 days there have been at least four cases of distraught soldiers in Kashmir fatally shooting colleagues, then committing suicide.
Gen. J.J. Singh, the army chief, ordered the probe Wednesday after the latest incident, in which an army soldier shot and killed his unit commander one day earlier, said an army spokesman, Vijay Joshi.
"The inquiry will go into the circumstances which led to the shooting" in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, Joshi said Thursday.
Certainly some of this is about simple opportunity: Soldiers have ready access to dangerous weapons. But military officials say 17 years of bloody insurgencies in Kashmir, and to a lesser degree in India's remote northeast, are wearing down the military.
During this year's Hindu festival of Diwali, when most Indians feast with their families, a soldier in Kashmir shot dead four others, then killed himself with his AK-47 assault rifle.
The army gave no reason for the shooting, but news reports said the soldier had been refused leave to visit his family over the holiday.
More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989 in Muslim-majority Kashmir, seeking the Himalayan territory's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. Both countries claim of all of Kashmir, which is divided between them.
India has an estimated 700,000 soldiers in Kashmir, many along the frontier with Pakistan, but plenty more in dangerous, violence-savaged towns and villages. In many areas, the region has the feel of an occupied country, with soldiers in full combat gear patrolling streets and frisking civilians at checkpoints. Kashmiri civilians make little secret of their anger at the Indian military, which is regularly accused of human rights violations.
Living amid hatred takes its toll on the soldiers.
"This is an insurgency-wracked area. Soldiers operate in an environment where they are not sure about the future. This situation generates a lot of stress, and sometimes results in these kinds of incidents," said Col. Hemant Juneja, an army spokesman in Srinagar.
Also contributing to the pressure are changes in Indian society, like the breakdown of the tradition of men staying with their parents _ even after marrying and having their own children.
"A soldier who went off to war was sure his wife and children would be looked after in the event of his being killed in battle. With modern nuclear families, the soldier is always beset by concerns about his family's future," Juneja said.
There are other changes in India as well. The military, long a high-status profession, has been eclipsed by the far-better-paying jobs in the private sector.
But prolonged deployment in dangerous situations is the largest factor in increasing stress levels, says Brig. Harwant Singh, a retired army officer.
"In terrorist- and militancy-affected areas, the potential presence of terrorists in close proximity takes its toll," said Brig. Singh. "This makes them edgy, resulting in some taking the extreme step of either shooting themselves or their superiors whom they perceive to be the cause of all their miseries."
Military experts also say that the army is becoming "overstretched" with soldiers having to do long spells in difficult areas. The solution, they say, lies not in increasing the size of the army _ already among the world's largest with more than 1 million soldiers _ but in training paramilitary troops to take over some of the duties now left to the army.
"The army can then keep its powder dry for its real task," said retired Gen. Ashok Mehta, a military commentator.
The new inquiry will help pinpoint what plays on soldiers' minds when serving in tough areas, and what could help keep them calm.
In Srinagar, the army spokesman said soldiers were being taught yoga to help them cope.
After a spate of similar shootings in the early 1990s, the army had reformed its rules, easing conditions for leave and salary hikes for soldiers serving in difficult areas, Gen. Mehta said.
"It's time for a re-look at these issues. Clearly, more reforms are needed," he said.
In the past 10 days there have been at least four cases of distraught soldiers in Kashmir fatally shooting colleagues, then committing suicide.
Gen. J.J. Singh, the army chief, ordered the probe Wednesday after the latest incident, in which an army soldier shot and killed his unit commander one day earlier, said an army spokesman, Vijay Joshi.
"The inquiry will go into the circumstances which led to the shooting" in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, Joshi said Thursday.
Certainly some of this is about simple opportunity: Soldiers have ready access to dangerous weapons. But military officials say 17 years of bloody insurgencies in Kashmir, and to a lesser degree in India's remote northeast, are wearing down the military.
During this year's Hindu festival of Diwali, when most Indians feast with their families, a soldier in Kashmir shot dead four others, then killed himself with his AK-47 assault rifle.
The army gave no reason for the shooting, but news reports said the soldier had been refused leave to visit his family over the holiday.
More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989 in Muslim-majority Kashmir, seeking the Himalayan territory's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. Both countries claim of all of Kashmir, which is divided between them.
India has an estimated 700,000 soldiers in Kashmir, many along the frontier with Pakistan, but plenty more in dangerous, violence-savaged towns and villages. In many areas, the region has the feel of an occupied country, with soldiers in full combat gear patrolling streets and frisking civilians at checkpoints. Kashmiri civilians make little secret of their anger at the Indian military, which is regularly accused of human rights violations.
Living amid hatred takes its toll on the soldiers.
"This is an insurgency-wracked area. Soldiers operate in an environment where they are not sure about the future. This situation generates a lot of stress, and sometimes results in these kinds of incidents," said Col. Hemant Juneja, an army spokesman in Srinagar.
Also contributing to the pressure are changes in Indian society, like the breakdown of the tradition of men staying with their parents _ even after marrying and having their own children.
"A soldier who went off to war was sure his wife and children would be looked after in the event of his being killed in battle. With modern nuclear families, the soldier is always beset by concerns about his family's future," Juneja said.
There are other changes in India as well. The military, long a high-status profession, has been eclipsed by the far-better-paying jobs in the private sector.
But prolonged deployment in dangerous situations is the largest factor in increasing stress levels, says Brig. Harwant Singh, a retired army officer.
"In terrorist- and militancy-affected areas, the potential presence of terrorists in close proximity takes its toll," said Brig. Singh. "This makes them edgy, resulting in some taking the extreme step of either shooting themselves or their superiors whom they perceive to be the cause of all their miseries."
Military experts also say that the army is becoming "overstretched" with soldiers having to do long spells in difficult areas. The solution, they say, lies not in increasing the size of the army _ already among the world's largest with more than 1 million soldiers _ but in training paramilitary troops to take over some of the duties now left to the army.
"The army can then keep its powder dry for its real task," said retired Gen. Ashok Mehta, a military commentator.
The new inquiry will help pinpoint what plays on soldiers' minds when serving in tough areas, and what could help keep them calm.
In Srinagar, the army spokesman said soldiers were being taught yoga to help them cope.
After a spate of similar shootings in the early 1990s, the army had reformed its rules, easing conditions for leave and salary hikes for soldiers serving in difficult areas, Gen. Mehta said.
"It's time for a re-look at these issues. Clearly, more reforms are needed," he said.
Comment