BSF trooper commits suicide near LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir

A Border Security Force (BSF) trooper on Sunday committed suicide at an outpost on the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. According to PTI, police officials identified him as Constable Parmod Kumar. The BSF trooper tried to kill himself at the Khara One post and was shifted to a hospital where he was declared dead. The LoC divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. [caption id=“attachment_3303598” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Earlier this month, another soldier named Havildar Kishan Singh Rathore of 24 Grenadiers of the Indian Army had committed suicide by shooting himself with his service weapon in the garrison town of Samba on the Jammu-Pathankot national highway, a report published in  Hindustan Times, said. Singh was a native of Chapra village in Nagpur district of Rajasthan. Another BSF jawan, Manoj Kumar, a native of Uttar Pradesh, killed himself with his service rifle in Jaisalmer district in October 2016. Suicides have been a serious concern across security forces. According to The Times of India, finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was then heading the Ministry of Defence in 2014 told Raja Sabha that 597 military personnel committed suicide in 5 years between 2009 and 2013. According to the report, in the Army, by far the largest of the three services, for instance, 116 soldiers committed suicide in 2010, 105 in 2011 and 95 in 2012. Last year, while 86 soldiers committed suicide, the figure for airmen and sailors stood at 15 and 6. In 2014, the National Crime Records Bureau reported 175 deaths, through accident and suicides, among the paramilitary force, a report published in DNA said. “Among them, women accounted for 41.7 percent or 73 deaths,” it added. In January security personnel from both the Army as well as BSF and CRPF had taken the social media to express their grievances over working conditions and food. General Bipin Rawat had then warned soldiers not to take to the social media to address complaints, and instead advised soldiers to use the new grievance redressal system under which complaints would reach him directly while the identity of the complainant would be kept a secret.