One more Indian soldier commits suicide

JAMMU: An Indian soldier shot himself with his service rifle in Jammu and Kashmir's border district of Poonch, the third such case of "distress" death in a week.

According to officials, Sepoy P John Thomas of 1 Bihar Regiment had recently got posted to the Patti Manga area of the mountainous district of Poonch, close to the Line of Control with Pakistan.

On Friday evening he shot himself with his Insas rifle all of a sudden. He was taken to hospital where he was declared dead.

The cause of his act was not immediately known. The Army has initiated an inquiry.

Poonch's Senior Superintendent of Police SDS Jamwal said that the police have registered a case.

This is third incident of its kind in a week in this area in which soldiers have "opened fire in distress, killing themselves or colleagues", police said.

The first incident happened on October 21 in Rajouri district in which a soldier killed three colleagues and injured himself and another on October 23 in the same district where a soldier shot dead two colleagues and then killed himself.