The truth may indeed be stranger than fiction, but it would call for more than the proverbial “pinch of salt” to accept the contention that unhappiness at being posted far from home sufficed for a jawan of the Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry to desert his unit, and switch allegiance to the terrorist Hizbul Mujahideen ~ which the Army has been battling for several years.

Soldiers ducking re-deployment in places as distant from home turf as Danapur is from Shopian is not a rarity, but becoming a turncoat and sleeping with the enemy suggests a deeper disgruntlement.

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Idrees Sultan Mir was no greenhorn, three years in uniform ought to have sufficed to get him accustomed to the rigours of military life.

It is conceded that it may have been a “doctored” photograph of the jawan brandishing a terrorist weapon that was flashed on social media, but that also points to the possibility of the Hizbul’s indoctrination tactics having contaminated the military system ~ the regimental home of the JAKLI is on the outskirts of Srinagar.

It also bears recall that this is not the first case of a soldier or policeman opting to join the militants’ ranks. And it re-emphasises the need for the Army leadership, particularly its JCOs and NCOs, to ensure that the bond of the paltan does not get frayed under increasing strain.

To think that the soldier is not impacted by the muscular policy Army Headquarters had adopted to curb militancy in the Valley would be shutting one eye to reality.

For while the top commanders might find it motivational to project the militants as the enemy, for the local soldier/policeman seeing his kinfolk subjected to the punitive effects of military force is likely to trigger resentment.

Such resentment festers with each incident like the rape/murder at Kathua, or the human shield outrage.

The militants have an elaborate propaganda machinery that has lured several young folk into believing that they are freedom fighters, “defenders of the faith”: it would be naïve to think that it has not tried to infiltrate the soldiers’ mindset.

The folk in the Valley have been caught in a vicious cross-fire for over 25 years, and with official efforts at “winning hearts and minds” being both ineffective and inconsistent, poisoning the mind of the simple soldier is not a tall order.

The Army’s training systems will have to more than match the Hizbul, Let and Jaish in keeping the house in order. A task complicated by the divide in the state government, and the Centre and state not following a common policy.

And, of course, the failure of the “national” political leadership to evolve an acceptable Kashmir policy. These are angles “exposed” by the JAKLI jawan who abandoned the Army’s traditions and discipline to shoot for the militants/terrorists.