SRINAGAR – Indian army has lost five soldiers in occupied Kashmir with twosoldiers on Tuesday committing suicide.

They killed themselves with their service weapons in occupied Jammu andKashmir, police said, as the suicide toll of personnel posted in thestrife-torn state mounted to five, Hindustan Times has reported.

According to police, sepoy Kulvinder Singh of 10 Sikh Regiment committedsuicide in south Kashmir’s Qazigund area. He was from Punjab.

In Samba district, soldier Naresh Yadav shot himself with his servicepistol. Senior superintendent of police Anil Magotra said the body was sentfor an autopsy and an investigation was initiated to ascertain what led tohis death.

Earlier this month, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper committedsuicide in Srinagar on March 10. Days before that, two soldiers of thecounter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles shot themselves in Kupwara district onMarch 7 and 8.

According to officials, who don’t want to be named, the number offratricides and suicides in armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir had declinedover the years as militancy has relatively reduced, compared to the 1990sand early 2000.

They attribute this positive sign to measures such as a liberal leavepolicy for the men in uniform, hiring psychologists to counsel stressedsoldiers and yoga classes.

But in its annual report, human rights organisation Jammu Kashmir Coalitionof Civil Society (JKCCS) said: “The continuous incidents of suicides amongthe ranks of armed forces are an indicator of their poor psychologicalhealth, which demands immediate attention of the government.”