SRINAGAR, Jan 17 (1997): An Indian soldier in the troubled state of Kashmir shot dead three colleagues and injured several others in a fit of rage after he was denied leave to go home, police said here Friday.
Police sources said the soldier went on the rampage at a National Rifles camp in the southern district of Doda Wednesday, gunning down an officer and two others and wounding an unspecified number of soldiers.
He was later overpowered and is facing a court martial, they said, adding the injured had been taken to hospital.
Tens of thousands of Indian soldiers and paramilitary troops have been deployed in the Himalayan state, where Moslem insurgency has claimed more than 15,000 lives since 1989.
The incident comes three weeks after another soldier killed five colleagues, including a major, and injured six others in the Kashmir town of Sopore, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the state summer capital, Srinagar.
Doctors say stress, overwork and long hours in a hostile environment cause soldiers, living away from their families for long spells, to snap.
