How the Amarnath Yatra Fuels India’s Brutal Occupation of Kashmir

The latest case of tragic suicide of an Indian Army soldier, Naik P Kumar, serving at the fortress like Badami Bagh camp in Srinagar in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), has once more rekindled the ugly and horrific aspect of decreasing mental health among the ranks of the Indian armed units deployed in the area.  This is according to early reports which indicate that Naik Kumar committed suicide by hanging himself on the ceiling of his barracks at the military. India’s Brutal Occupation of Kashmir Although the official accounts have cited personal reasons as the cause of his death, some sources have claimed that it is possible that he had been guided by the massive guilt that he had been feeling due to participating in the human rights violations (HRVs) against the Kashmiri people an element which is said to have plunged many Indian soldiers deployed at this conflict area into serious psychological turn down.
This is not a unique occurrence but one among the tragic trends which has always marred the Indian military, especially in volatile and repressive operations like IIOJK. Group suicides and fratricides (killing of fellow soldiers), an alarming rate of which has been reported repeatedly by the media, the main cause of which is attributable to the Indian troops. The case of Naik Kumar is the one that has once again led to a critical question on the slackening standards of training, discipline, and most importantly the mental and psychological well-being of Indian troops that are serving in Kashmir. As per some official records, over 1,100 members of the Indian defense forces committed suicide during 2010-2019, the army contributing to the major counts.
Precisely in IIOJK, since 2007 to date 476 instances of suicide have been reported by Indian soldiers and police officers with an average of 25 to 30 per year. These are not mere numbers as they create a chilling story of mental decay by men who have been pushed into an occupying force that is rudely severed with the lives of civilians and distraught inner inconsistencies. In the seven years since 2014 alone the Indian armed forces, that is, the army, the navy and the air force, recorded 787 suicides and 591 of these individuals were in the army. A significant number of such incidents occurred in conflict zones like IIOJK and Northeast India.
This supports claims that prolonged deployment in politically unstable areas heightens psychological stress among soldiers. As of 2023, 120 suicides in the military were reported in total including almost 100 in the army. The majority of such cases either directly or indirectly had a connection with deployment in IIOJK the Indian forces are accused by international human rights organizations of being grossly violating the international law by performing torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, and sexual violence. The total suicide numbers rose in 2024 to 787 in the three military services in India, as opposed to 57 suicides reported in 2023 and 24 in the first half of 2024 in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
Though it is still not a complete figure in IIOJK for 2024 but nevertheless multiple high-profile suicides in Poonch and Shopian districts have been reported by local and international observers. There were two such incidents (the suicide of a soldier in Gulmarg June 10 and now the suicide of Kumar on June 17) that shocked the Indian military establishment in 2025 alone, before Naik P Kumar actually died. All these have escalated the cumulative count of military suicides between 2007 and 2025 to 1,230 where 333 have been confirmed as happening within IIOJK.
There have been many videos on the social media sites where jawans (soldiers) have directly complained about being maltreated by their seniors, the quality of food, the hygienic condition they are living in, being compelled to work, no holidays and the mental torture of being asked to go against their inner moral code to brutally attack civilians on the onslaught of the orders. Such confessions in the media display the growing concern in the ranks- a frustration that the authorities cannot suppress even by trying to censor it, or punishing those who blow the whistle. The mere fact that soldiers are taking the chance of being court martial to shine light on such abuses portrays a lot about corruption and cancer in the moral and integrity of the Indian military machine.
Kashmir valley, which has remained politically outside India since its annexation in 1947, has now turned into the graveyard not only of the Kashmiri hopes but also of the reason of those who perpetrate the iron fist policy of New Delhi. IIOJK is the longest militarized territory in the world with close to one million Indian Troops positioned against a civilian population of only eight and half million. The silly military to civilian ratio is not just a product of paranoia over the loss of the territory by India but also one of the reasons why the current situation is causing an unbearable psychological pressure on their own soldiers.
This army is in a no-win position: supposed to repress a popular movement of freedom, yet at the same time to fear reprisals, antagonism of the local population, and to feel guilty because of the injustices they are compelled to commit. Failure to seek moral or legal remedies to committing or witnessing or facilitating human rights violations leaves a huge toll in terms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) effects on the many Indian army personnel. It is a long-known fact that a longer time in combat zones where soldiers have to suppress the civilians instead of the armed opponents, leads to psychological disorders.
Soldiers on this front have to deal with two enemies. The external one, which is characterized by their instructions, and the internal one which is based on the feelings of guilt, moral injury, and psychological collapse. More people are dying in this silent war compared to the war on the ground. Others are back, broken and could not fit back-to-back into normal life, experiences that they cannot reason themselves into. This is a black truth that is seldom addressed publicly by the mainstream media in India and is seen as a hush-hush matter told in hushed tones in the corridors of the military and the psychiatric hospitals where traumatized war vets are being treated. Therefore, the suicide of Naik P Kumar does not represent the failure of an individual, it is the indicator of the systemic failure. It is a symbol of intolerable burden of serving in a military system where one has to compromise morally, blind ethically, and be completely subservient to the crime against humanity.
It reveals how the Indian military institution has failed to according to proper psychological attention, moral and ethical support to its soldier. This perverse cycle of soldiers committing suicide, protesting Kashmiri deaths, and Kashmiris resisting the oppression of their state will only end when India addresses the root causes of each of these phenomena i.e. when India stops denying the right to the self-determination of Kashmiris and stops paying the human cost of such denial.