AIDS cases in Assam Rifles exaggerated: DGAR

October 31, 2006

AIDS cases in AR exaggerated: DGAR

Shillong, Oct 13 (UNI): Director General of Assam Rifles Lieutenant

General Paramjit Singh has said that the number of HIV/AIDS patients

in his force was 'blown out of proportion' by the media.

His statement assumed significance in the backdrop of the massive

anti-AIDS/HIV campaign his predecessor Lt. General Bhopinder Singh

had led just prior to his retirement.

The number of jawans who tested positive and were undergoing

treatment was 180 while 32 others had died, as per the former DG's

statement. The first HIV-positive Assam Rifles soldier was detected

in 1992.

In sharp contrast, DGAR, Lt General Singh, said, ''it is not a

threat to my force nor is it that alarming a situation.'' He added

that in the normal process his force had taken note of the dreaded

disease.

Asked whether he will take up the initiatives of his predecessor to

campaign against AIDS/HIV in the region, he said, ''I'm not a

campaigner against AIDS/HIV, but a soldier. I will do what my force

requires me to do.''

However, he added that the Assam Rifles was committed towards

checking proliferation of the dreaded disease and also included

counselling of the local populace. ''But I fail to see why one

should turn it into a media circus,'' he remarked. Lt. General

Bhophinder Singh, who retired four months ago, had made a media

splash by observing that the HIV/AIDS scenario in the Assam Rifles

was so alarming that ''more of his jawans have died because of

HIV/AIDS than fallen to the bullets fired by the militants,'' a

statement which made headlines in the world media.

He and his wife, Winnie Singh, who headed the Assam Rifles Wives

Welfare Association (ARWWA), was part of the huge campaign. They had

co-founded an NGO--Maitri--on the eve of his retirement.

The Assam Rifles is a premier paramilitary force of 56,000 troops

deployed in the rugged jungles of the northeast against some 30-

militant groups waging insurgencies for independent homelands or

greater autonomy.

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