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An Indian army trooper Thursday killed five of his colleagues and wounded two others before shooting himself dead with his service rifle inside a camp in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.
The fratricide took place early Thursday at around 2:00 a.m. ( local time) at a military camp stationed at Safapoora village of Bandipora district, about 35 km north of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
"A soldier early today ran amok inside the camp in Safapoora and fired indiscriminately on his colleagues, resulting in killing of five on spot," Lt Col N N Joshi, Indian army spokesman in Srinagar, told Xinhua. "The soldier later on committed suicide by shooting himself dead inside the camp."
Reports said the two wounded troopers were hospitalized and are under medical supervision.
Officials said statements of the duo would be of vital importance to know reasons underlying the incident.
Indian army has ordered a court of inquiry into the incident.
"An investigation has been ordered," Joshi said. "We are trying to get details to know what actually went wrong."
Indian police has also registered a case and ordered an investigation in the fratricide.
Early morning medical teams were rushed to the camp to carry out postmortem on the bodies.
Sources said the erring trooper had a verbal brawl with his colleagues hours before he went on the killing spree.
Safapoora camp houses troopers belonging to Indian counter- insurgency force 13 Rashtriya Rifles.
The fratricide comes a day after India's navy chief Admiral D K Joshi tendered resignation taking "moral responsibility" for a string of operational incidents in navy. Two Indian navy officers were killed and seven sailors on board injured after fire broke out in submarine INS Sindhuratna, about 50 km off the Mumbai coast.
Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir, battling armed insurgency are reported to be under a lot of stress and strain.
In October last year an Indian army trooper killed a junior level officer (JCO) inside a camp following a brawl at their camp in Kokernag of Anantnag district, about 85 km south of Srinagar.
Last year four troopers were killed in incidents of fratricide across the restive region.
Indian-controlled Kashmir is considered as the highest militarized region. Officially India does not reveal the actual number of its troops deployed in the troubled region. However, rights activists say there are over 700,000 Indian troops and paramilitary troops in the region fighting an anti-India insurgency.
During the past more than two decades several incidents of suicide and fratricide among the stationed troops were reported.
Health experts say continued separation from family, long duty hours, lack of recreational facilities, poor command and control structure were usually found to be behind such incidents.
A guerrilla war is also going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the restive region since 1989.
