Like in other high stress zones, fratricide and suicide has plagued the central forces deployed in Kashmir too. The government has initiated many measures to address the issue but psychiatrists suggest ‘reinforcing’ the philosophy of justice, through remedial cognitive spiritual appraisal, to overcome the malaise. Majid Maqbool reports.
Fratricide among soldiers deployed in Kashmir points towards high level of stress in the central forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) that has reported 18 such incidents since 2008. In the total of 44 reported cases of fratricide among the central forces since 2008, border Security Force (BSF) accounts for 12. Fifteen fratricidal killings took place in 2010, followed by six personnel in 2011.
In Dec 2011, three paramilitary CRPF personnel were killed and one critically injured at a camp in Kulgam, south Kashmir. Earlier in the year, in April, in a similar incident, four army soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) were shot dead and another wounded by their colleague inside an army camp of 42 RR in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district.
Out of 191 battalions of the CRPF, around 72 are deployed in Kashmir and 31 in Maoist-dominated areas of central India.
Counselors and experts engaged in addressing psycho-social problems among the armed forced deployed in the state blame stress, separation from family, long duty hours and poor command and control structure for more than 70 percent deaths in such shooting incidents since the year 2001.
Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, in its recently released annual report ‘‘Human rights review- Jammu and Kashmir 2011’’, reviewed the overall situation in the year 2011. “Suicides and fratricides by the personnel of the Indian armed forces, continues to exist as an issue in the year 2011,” the report says.“This year 15 armed forces personnel committed suicides in Jammu and Kashmir due to unknown reasons and another 9 were killed in fratricidal incidents of violence,” the report says.
Anshu Gupta, a psychiatric social expert, in his paper titled, “Stress in Indian Army: A Psychological Perspective of Present Scenario & Needs,” says the rising rate of suicide and fratricide is a matter of concern for the armed forces. “The alarming figure is 23 cases of fratricide in the Indian Army in the past 11 months. These 23 fratricide cases claimed the lives of three officers, four JCOs and 16 soldiers,” the paper states. “Of these, nine cases, involving two officers and seven soldiers, were reported from Jammu and Kashmir and the remaining 14 from the northeast region. This is against 13 cases in 2005 and nine in 2004. The condition is worse in the state of Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeast region.”
“Individual faces problems in adjustment right from the initial stage in the army due to shift from civil to army life. There are new requirements which the military service lays upon the individual, resulting in conflict between social and personal needs,” writes Anshu Gupta, adding that the military psychology becomes important in understanding the behaviors of the military personnel. He cites many reasons for increased fratricide and suicide cases in the armed forced, and outlines the main difficulties faced by the army personnel as:
Loss of contact: The individuals in army develop a fear of loosing contact with their near and dear ones due to the leave problems.
Loss of individual’s freedom: The nature of job is such that it demands strict discipline and every activity is guided. This leaves the individual with the feeling of loosing personal freedom.
Feeling of loneliness & family worries : Vice Admiral V.K.Singh cited “family problems” to be one of the major cause driving personnel to commit suicide and some personnel decide to end their lives when they visit their family and find them having difficulties in life. Living away from the family in difficult conditions makes them feel lonelier.
Comparison with counterparts: Many types of adjustment problems develop due to frustration when individual starts comparing himself with his counterparts or is being compared by higher officials.
Fear of death and getting wounded: “One of the most common fear which engulfs the defense personnel is the fear of death,” writes Gupta.“In spite of the fact that one day everyone has to die and the nature of army profession are such that this fact becomes more evident. But still fear of death keeps building up the stress. In many operations, soldiers get wounded and another fear crops up in the mind regarding the wound and the impairment or disability it will lead to.”
Guilt feeling: In spite of the hard training, Gupta writes, many soldiers may suffer from guilt feeling of killing a fellow human being. “However, the conscience should be clear that he is doing so for a national cause.”
Keeping in view the present scenario, Gupta writes, the government as well as people at various levels have given some proposals in the past to deal effectively with the stress. In December, 2006,Defence Minister constituted an expert group of psychiatrists under the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) to suggest remedial measures. On the eve of the Army Medical Corps’ Foundation Day (29th December, 2006), Vice Admiral V K Singh, Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Service, discussed about the plan to recruit 400 psychiatrists of officer rank to cope with stress that has led to an increase in fratricidal killings and suicides.
“Indian Army sends Kashmir forces for rest and has come up with ways to help de-stress overworked soldiers. Rest and Recuperation centers have been set up in northern Jammu and Kashmir region,” Gupta writes. “Soldiers from different units undergo stress-busting therapies of one week. Some people sit back and watch films, while others settle for some meditation.”
Gupta mentions that a parliamentary panel has recommended that the Indian Army should introduce regular lectures and exercises on yoga techniques for its soldiers in field areas to de-stress the jawans in field units. “It has also been recommended that the strength of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) be raised in proportion to its increased workload and responsibility.”
Gupta quotes a study (Mahdi & Shafiq) conducted to compare various techniques of stress management in both workers and supervisors of three different organizations — Air Force, Police and CRPF. “The study concluded that subjects belonging to three different organisations vary in the magnitude in the stress. And the intervention technique of medication and non-medication helped in the reduction of stress where non-medication had an edge over medication. Even in non-medication techniques yoga was found to be more powerful than spiritualism,” writes Gupta.
Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd.), who commanded an infantry brigade in the high-altitude Gurez sector on the Line of Control with Pakistan (operation Parakram, 2001-2003) and an artillery regiment in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir valley (operation Rakshak, 1993 -94), writes in his recent book, “Indian Army: Vision 2020”: “There have been several news reports of a number of CRPF personnel deployed in J&K having been afflicted by mental disease. This need to be taken care of, as the reported incidents may be advance indicators of a larger malaise.” The book quotes a Business India index (Jan 1999), attributed to former Additional Director General, CRPF, in a study undertaken by Department of Psychiatry, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, that stated, “the number out of every 100 CRPF personnel deployed in J&K who are suffering from mental illness is 13.”
Calling for efforts to be made to find “political solutions to the ongoing insurgency,” Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal writes in his book, “the nation’s decision makers would do well to understand that there cannot be a military solution to a socio-political and socio-economic problem. The army and other security forces can only achieve temporary military control over the law and order situation and facilitate a semblance of normalcy to return.” He further writes in the conclusion that the “root causes of insurgencies require political handling for resolution and long-term strategies that are not based on vote bank politics.”
Given the increased cases of fratricide and suicide, the CRPF chief last year had asked the supervisory commandants, company commanders and other senior officials to be in touch with soldiers at the grassroots to find out effective ways to ease stress and tension. “Such cases also pose a serious threat to our operational capabilities,” the CRPF spokesperson told reporters. “The force has decided to raise 10 more battalions with the recruitment of 17,000 personnel. This increased number would help in replacing the stressed staff posted in sensitive areas like Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states where living conditions are very tough,” he said.
Besides conducting Art of Living sessions and Yoga classes to lower stress, the CRPF had also proposed a plan to the pay commission for extending the hardship allowance to troops posted in Jammu and Kashmir. The hardship allowance is only given to troops fighting insurgents in the northeast.
In January this year, in a letter dispatched to the zonal headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir, Kolkata, Guwahati and Hyderabad, CRPF Additional Director General (Operations), PM Nair,reportedly blamed alcoholism as a major reason for fratricidal killings in its ranks. “It appears that the liquor being issued to personnel in wet areas is consumed in barracks and in isolation. More often, verbal duels and personal issues crop up in such situations,” the letter said. “Therefore, it would be advisable that consumption of issued liquor be permitted only in a common mess and in the presence of competent supervisory officials.”
“At any cost, liquor should not be allowed to be carried to the barracks and private rooms in battalion/company locations,” the letter further said. Reports suggest thatCRPF has advised the zonal headquarters and superior officers to seriously address alcoholism and other deviancies among the forces.
“When there is sudden violence, like in the case of fratricide killing, it has long term effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PSTDs) among the military personnel,” says psychiatrist Dr Aijaz Ahmad Khan. “Besides being away from home and posted in a place where they are unwelcome does affect their mental state,” he says. “They have to be always alert and they are more prone to psychiatric symptoms over a period of time which can result in fratricide killings,” he adds.
Dr Arif Khan, a psychiatrist at Kashmir LifeLine health centre that provides free counseling and treatment for mental ailments, says whenever military personnel commit suicide in Kashmir, it becomes news, and often suicide cases that are prevalent among general population in Kashmir are ignored.He says over the years there has been an alarming increase in suicide level among the general population in Kashmir.
“Before militancy the rate of suicide was 0.5 per lakh people, and now in 2012 it has risen to 16,” he says, adding that a survey conducted by doctors without borders has revealed that there has been a 400 percent rise in suicide levels in Kashmir over the last two decades of conflict. Dr Arif says among the military forces stationed in the valley, suicide and fratricide cases can result from factors like less holidays, and lack of rest from strenuous duty hours. “Sometimes the military personnel stationed in the valley carry mental ailments that are not properly diagnosed earlier, and then these undiagnosed mental disorders come to a boiling point and they often meet a trigger, which is provided by sudden violence like fratricide that happens in seconds,” he says.
“Pre-induction screening for substance use and other severe mental health issues including extreme personality traits will go a long way in decreasing fratricidal incidents,” says a leading psychiatrist Dr Arshad Hussain. He says measures like in-service training of anger and aggression management, along with stress reduction, will reduce fratricidal incidents in the forces. “Reinforcing the philosophy of justice and not vengeance through remedial cognitive spiritual appraisal should be tried to enhance the value of life,” suggests Dr Arshad.
