‘Suicide’ by armyman: Kin allege foul play

The family of a soldier who allegedly committed suicide in Uri sector on Thursday, alleged foul play and marked their protest by placing his body at Satwari Chowk.

The family of a soldier who allegedly committed suicide in Uri sector on Thursday, alleged foul play and marked their protest by placing his body at Satwari Chowk. This disrupted traffic movement for over two hours on Saturday afternoon.

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The deceased was a rifleman in the army and a resident of Samba.

“My son had a passion to join the army. He was a C-certificate holder and a passout from MAM College. How could he commit suicide? I had talked to him on Thursday morning and he sounded cheerful. Also, how can anyone fire two gunshots to end their life?” mother of the deceased said.

The family was outraged when body of the deceased was brought in a private vehicle by two soldiers in civvies, who were headed to their homes on leave.

The family said his body should have been sent home with full military honours and demanded that he should be given the status of a martyr. His mother also demanded a second postmortem and an independent probe into the death.

She alleged that the army did something wrong with her son. A former sarpanch of the deceased’s village claimed that the army is hiding something.