AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
New Delhi: The Indian army has taken steps to discourage officers from faking clashes in a bid to win military honours. “Now recognition will be given for overall performance and the evaluation system has been revised,” Indian army chief J.J. Singh told reporters late Thursday.
“The aberrations of the past that 'kills' will give greater glory has been put to rest,” the chief of the 1.3-million-strong military force said.
“We want to stop this race for (false) performance,” the general said.
Singh was referring to a 2004 scandal involving a major who was given a three-year jail sentence for claiming to have killed Pakistani soldiers to grab medals during fighting with Pakistan for control of Kashmir's Siachen glacier.
The sentence was overturned by a civilian court after Major Surinder Singh testified he had been forced to fake two clashes in Siachen in 2003 to win medals for his regiment by his commander.
Indian and Pakistani forces face each other across the 6,300-metre (20,700-foot) high glacier and, until a 2003 ceasefire, regularly clashed, exchanging rockets, mortar and artillery fire.
“I have also come down very heavily on the undue emphasis on kills for the rating of battalions,” the general said. If a person dies in custody, “the battalion concerned is penalised,” he added.
International and Indian human rights groups have expressed concern about so-called “custody deaths” in which people die after being taken into custody by the armed forces.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are now engaged in a peace process to settle their feud over Kashmir, which is divided between the neighbours and has sparked two of their three wars.
A freedom movement has raged against New Delhi's rule in the Indian occupied Kashmir since 1989, claiming at least 40,000 lives and over 80,000 by some estimates.
