Army: Bathinda firing an ‘inside job’, says Army, virtually rules out terror hit | India News
NEW DELHI: The Army suspects the “firing incident” at the Bathinda military station in the early hours of Wednesday, in which four jawans were shot dead, was an “inside job” and has virtually ruled out “any terror angle” in the episode.
Army chief General Manoj Pande briefed defence minister Rajnath Singh on the incident that took place around 4:30am inside a room of an artillery unit behind the officers’ mess in the sprawling heavily fortified Bathinda military station.
The FIR lodged with the Punjab police by an Army officer said two unidentified “masked” persons, dressed in white kurta-pyjamas, were spotted running towards the nearby jungle by a sentry on duty. While one was carrying a 5.56mm INSAS (Indian small arms system) rifle, which was reported missing along with 28 bullets two days ago, the other had an axe.
Sources said “all indications” pointed at “fratricide”, which was “a well-planned one” instead of the usual case where a soldier guns down his colleagues or superiors in a sudden rush of blood to the head due to some grievance.
“There does not seem to be any terror angle. There was no breach of perimeter security at the military station. A public road does run through the station but there are boundary walls on both sides,” a source said.
“It was in all probability fratricide with one or two insiders involved due to some personal enmity…there were no outsiders. But nothing has yet been ruled out and all aspects are being examined. People are being questioned after segregation,” he added.
No suspects had been apprehended till late in the evening. But the INSAS rifle was found dumped later in the day, with 19 empty shells also being recovered from the incident site. “The axe, if there was one, was not used in the attack,” the source said.
The rifle’s forensic examination will be conducted for fingerprints, while other evidence like CCTV footage is also being examined. “Apart from the four victims, no one has been found missing after a headcount of the artillery unit. The assailants could have quietly joined their colleagues back after the shooting,” the source said.
Soldiers in the 12-lakh strong Army do suffer from a lot of stress and strain due to their hard postings, protracted deployment along the borders with Pakistan and China and relentless counter-insurgency operations.
Over 120 soldiers die by suicide every year, with some cases of fratricide also being reported, which underlines the urgent need for better suicide prevention and stress management policies in the force, as reported by TOI earlier.
In July last year, junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt told Rajya Sabha that as many as 819 military personnel had died by suicide in the last five years. The Army lost 642 soldiers, while the number was 148 in the IAF and 29 in the Navy, he said.
Army chief General Manoj Pande briefed defence minister Rajnath Singh on the incident that took place around 4:30am inside a room of an artillery unit behind the officers’ mess in the sprawling heavily fortified Bathinda military station.
The FIR lodged with the Punjab police by an Army officer said two unidentified “masked” persons, dressed in white kurta-pyjamas, were spotted running towards the nearby jungle by a sentry on duty. While one was carrying a 5.56mm INSAS (Indian small arms system) rifle, which was reported missing along with 28 bullets two days ago, the other had an axe.
Sources said “all indications” pointed at “fratricide”, which was “a well-planned one” instead of the usual case where a soldier guns down his colleagues or superiors in a sudden rush of blood to the head due to some grievance.
“There does not seem to be any terror angle. There was no breach of perimeter security at the military station. A public road does run through the station but there are boundary walls on both sides,” a source said.
“It was in all probability fratricide with one or two insiders involved due to some personal enmity…there were no outsiders. But nothing has yet been ruled out and all aspects are being examined. People are being questioned after segregation,” he added.
No suspects had been apprehended till late in the evening. But the INSAS rifle was found dumped later in the day, with 19 empty shells also being recovered from the incident site. “The axe, if there was one, was not used in the attack,” the source said.
The rifle’s forensic examination will be conducted for fingerprints, while other evidence like CCTV footage is also being examined. “Apart from the four victims, no one has been found missing after a headcount of the artillery unit. The assailants could have quietly joined their colleagues back after the shooting,” the source said.
Soldiers in the 12-lakh strong Army do suffer from a lot of stress and strain due to their hard postings, protracted deployment along the borders with Pakistan and China and relentless counter-insurgency operations.
Over 120 soldiers die by suicide every year, with some cases of fratricide also being reported, which underlines the urgent need for better suicide prevention and stress management policies in the force, as reported by TOI earlier.
In July last year, junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt told Rajya Sabha that as many as 819 military personnel had died by suicide in the last five years. The Army lost 642 soldiers, while the number was 148 in the IAF and 29 in the Navy, he said.
