By Swetha Bommerla:
It is very painful to hear that again an army person allegedly fired at Dilshan, a 13-year old boy, and three others for trespassing of the army housing residential quarters near Fort St. George in Chennai on 03.07.2011.
The boy was neither a terrorist nor carrying any arms. He came to the quarters for picking up some fruits from the plants. Even when it is a terrorist the police will give warning for surrendering or fire on the legs so that they can capture the terrorist. But here the boy was fired by the jawan straight away and killed. This action shows the carelessness of that jawan, who thinks he is supreme and whatever he does no one can question him. This is nothing but misuse of position by the Army.
An army person means a well disciplined and patient person. He should save the civilians of the country from the enemies’ attack even at the cost of his life. But in the present incidence the reverse situation happened and the jawan killed his own country’s innocent boy, a shame on the Indian Army’s discipline.
This is not for the first time that Army killed innocent civilians. Earlier, also on many occasions, such misuse of position has occurred. Many innocent civilians have died in the still going on Kashmir movement. Many were killed and gang raped by the army officers in North Eastern States in the name of suppression of ULFA agitation. Many innocent are being till today, in many states in the name of Maoists and Naxals including in Andhra Pradesh. Taking the current situation in Hyderabad, BSF, whose work is to control Country’s Borders, is deployed in the Osmania University to suppress the Telangana movement in Andhra Pradesh. Though the students in OU did not use any arms and ammunition, the BSF, RAF and local police fired expired tear gas, rubber bullets and lathi charged on their own country’s children. All this is nothing but misuse of power and position by Army/Police.
This practice exists not only in India but also all over the world. Even the superpower US, who claims of the protection of human rights all over the world, killed thousands of innocent people. During the recent wars in the Afghanistan and Iraq against terrorism, it dropped sophisticated arms and bombs on the schools and hospitals killing hundreds of children/people. In July, 2007 US occupying forces in an Apache helicopter intentionally fired on a dozen civilians in Baghdad, including journalists working for the Reuters news organization.
On 15th August 2010 when Palestinians, joined by internationals asking for the opening of Shuhada Street, the Israeli army, represented by soldiers and border police, entered from the gate leading to Shuhada Street, and pushed the protesters back up the street they came from. Several people were pushed violently to the ground without any warning or for any reason. Five innocent protesters were arrested with extreme force and taken away by border police and soldiers. All faced trumped up charges, including, ironically, of supposedly assaulting soldier.
Since last many years, Sri Lankan Army is killing thousands of innocent civilians for the suppression of LTTE movement.
Though the army is doing a fantastic job in protecting their country from internal and external forces round the clock and doing small mistakes, still they can sway towards zero tolerance sometimes but mostly they are disciplined and well trained. Their superiors should look into their personal problems besides retaining them on duty continuously for days together. This is result of deploying them continuously on duty and that too away from their family days together.