Terrorists have killed over 230 soldiers in 4 yrs

A total of 234 army personnel have died fighting terrorists in the last four years, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

"From 2007 to 2009, 196 army personnel died while 38 lost their lives this year," Defence Minister A K Antony said in reply to a written query.

The Indian Army is deployed in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast for many years now.

It was deployed in the Northeast in the 1950s and later on tasked to handle the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir since late 80s.

On another query, the minister said 8,214 officers were inducting into the army in the last three years.

The defence minister said, in reply to a query, that officers of the rank of brigadier and equivalent are eligible for re-employment in the army and the navy.

"In army, the number of re-employed retired brigadiers is limited to a maximum of 10 percent of the authorised strength, while there is no such prescribed limit in case of the navy," he said.