Army Major shot dead by jawan in J&K

An army major was shot dead by his subordinate following an altercation over the use of cellphone in Uri sector of north Kashmir's Baramulla district on Tuesday.

A police official said the army personnel shot dead Major Shikhar Thapa with his service rifle at Butcher Post in the Uri sector after the latter reprimanded the former for using mobile phone while on duty in a sensitive area.

Major Thapa belonged to 71 Armoured Regiment but was attached to 8 Rashtriya Rifles, the army’s elite counter-insurgency unit deployed in Uri, where 19 soldiers were killed in a fidayeen (suicide) attack by militants in last year September.

“Major Thapa confiscated the cell phone of the jawan, whose identity was not known immediately, which led to an argument. The solider shot the officer with his AK-47 rifle at around 12 am,” sources said.

The police have lodged an FIR and started a probe into the incident.

Experts attribute multiple reasons for fratricidal killing and for the continuing suicides among members of the armed forces deployed in conflict zones. These include low morale among soldiers leading to stress, poor service conditions, inadequacy of leave to go home and communication gap with superiors.

The Army has devised several methods to reduce stress levels including rationalising grant of leave, improving senior-sub-ordinate relationships, psycho-analysis of soldiers and reducing duty periods in inhospitable conditions.