Samba incident not provoked by soldier's suicide: Army chief

The stand-off between jawans and officers in an armoured regiment deployed at Samba in Jammu and Kashmir last week was not provoked by the suicide of a soldier of the unit, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh asserted today.

In an interaction with PTI on the sidelines of a function, the Army Chief said the force has instituted two separate Court of Inquiries to probe the incidents.

"We have instituted two separate Court of Inquiries. There was no connection between the suicide and the incident," he said when asked about the Samba incident.

"Let me tell you that the situation is not that bad. We have already ordered a Court of Inquiry and we are looking to go into the reasons", Gen Singh said.

Asked if the incidents were a cause of worry for the force, the Army Chief said, "These are isolated incidents.

Gen Bikram Singh said such incidents were "isolated" and the force was trying to strengthen its culture.

"As far as atmosphere in battalions is concerned, we are looking into them and trying to correct them," he said.

"We have been trying to address these issues. I have been addressing the troops and officers and I will be going to Siachen tomorrow and there also, I will do the same thing," he said.

The CoI to probe the stand-off between officers and jawans is being headed by a Brigadier-rank officer of the 9 Corps based in Yol Cantt.

On August 8, officers and jawans in 16 Cavalry Unit deployed at Samba were engaged in a stand-off after the suicide of a jawan Arun V hailing from Thiruvananthpuram.

The officers of the unit had to be shifted outside their residences after they were surrounded by the jawans.

In the last one year, there have been three separate incidents of stand off between officers and jawans at different places.

The last such incident took place in May at an artillery unit in Nyoma where several officers and jawans were injured, including its Commanding Officer.

Another incident took place at 45 Cavalry Unit in Gurdaspur where officers and jawans clashed with each other after a training session.