Jawan's suicide led to 'unrest' among troops in Samba: Antony

Defence Minister A K Antony today said suicide by a jawan had led to "unrest" among troops of an Army unit deployed in Samba sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh had claimed that the two incidents were "not connected".

Officers and jawans of the 16the Cavalry regiment were engaged in stand-off on August 8 in Samba sector soon after the jawan committed suicide.

"The incident of a suicide by an Army personnel on August 8 in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir led to unrest. A Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been convened by the Army to investigate the matter," Antony said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

After the incident came to light, Gen Bikram Singh had stated that two separate CoIs had been instituted by the Army and that "there was no connection between the suicide and the incident."

Antony said in the last two years, there have three such incidents where officers and jawans have been involved in "scuffles" at different places including the 226 Field Regiment at Nyoma in Ladakh and 45th Cavalry at Gurdaspur in Punjab.

The Defence Minister said jawans are not subjected to "undue harassment" by officers and they perform their responsibilities in a "congenial atmosphere".

In the same reply, he said in the last three years, 1,602 officers have sought either premature retirement or resigned from the force and 882 of these pleas have been accepted.

In case of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and jawans, he said 25,063 of them have taken premature retirement from the force.

Antony said a number of steps including liberalised leave policy, provision of recreational facilities and deployment of psychological counsellors to keep up the morale of jawans.

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