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| Indian military court creates history | | Sepoy Behra is awarded death sentence | | NEW DELHI | MAR 2
Within less than five months since the brutal assasination of Lieutenant Colonel S Saxena on the outskirts of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir State, a General Court Martial (GCM) has warded death sentence to a defence personel for killing him.
The GCM on Friday found sepoy KC Behra guilty of murdering Lt. Col. SDaxena on the outskirts of Srinagar on October 3, 2006. The GCM was held near Srinagar and headed by a Colonel from a regiment other than that of Lt Col Saxena, according to Army sources.
The death sentence is subject to confirmation by the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. JJ Singh. The sentence can be challenged in the civil courts. Behra had turned his assault rifle on his officer, Lt Col Saxena, killing him in a hail of gunfire. Behra and Saxena were of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) counter-insurgency battalion. While terming the sentence as "harsh," several serving officers said that such a punishment was never meted out in previous cases of killing of officers by other ranks.
Last year, deaths due to suicides and fratricide (killing of colleagues) in the Armed Forces touched a record high. According to some analysts, protracted deployment in counter-insurgency operations are taking a toll on the Army. Amidst an unprecedented rash of troop fratricides, the military now publicly admits that a war-without-end in Kashmir and the North-East is building up the type of troop stress which has erupted in soldiers shooting soldiers.
VK Singh, Vice-Admiral, Armed Forces Medical Services, has been quoted as saying: "We should have a clear direction for a soldier who has been hired for fighting. Since there is no clear-cut objective of what are we fighting for, stress factor sets in".
A recent in-house study reveals that most cases of suicide and fragging have occurred soon after troops returned to Army duty from leave. It suggests that troops who go over the edge are severely troubled by domestic issues they are unable to resolve.
Admiral Singh's observations are based on a survey of troop suicides and incidents of fragging over a three-year period. For the Army, there is a belated awakening to the need for stress management.Admits VK Singh: "We have understood over the past five to six years that troops need constant psychological counseling".
Within one year, psychological profiling will be made mandatory to determine suitability of troops for counter-insurgency operations, hoping to end the frustration of stressed soldiers who are beginning to question their role in a directionless war.
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