In an incident at Bathinda Military Station in Punjab, four soldiers from an artillery unit were killed on Wednesday morning. The incident occurred around 4.35 am, and the area was immediately cordoned off and sealed. According to a senior officer, the Station Quick Reaction Teams were activated.
The attack was carried out by two persons in white kurta-pajama who were masked, with their faces and heads covered. They were armed with an INSAS rifle and an axe, according to the police FIR. The two attackers went towards a forested area near the barracks after the shooting. A jawan saw them and later reported the matter to the police.
The slain jawans were identified as Sagar Banne (25), Kamalesh R (24), Yogesh Kumar J (24), and Santosh M Nagaral (25). Two of them hailed from Karnataka, and the other two were from Tamil Nadu.
An INSAS rifle from the unit and 28 rounds of ammunition had gone missing from the unit premises two days ago. The missing INSAS rifle suspected to be used in the firing incident was found by a search team.
The Punjab Police, which is investigating the matter along with their military counterparts, said according to the information gathered so far, the incident was not a terrorist act. Earlier in the day, the Punjab Police called it a ‘fratricidal incident’.
The Army's South Western command said in a statement, "It has been ascertained that in the unfortunate incident, four army jawans of an artillery unit succumbed to gunshot injuries sustained during the incident. No other injuries to personnel or loss/damage to property have been reported."
Bathinda is an important military installation and houses the headquarters of 10 Corps, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Jaipur-based South Western Command. The station is also home to a large number of operational Army units and other static establishments.
A court of inquiry will investigate the entire matter to establish the facts of the case and fix responsibility. Meanwhile, security has been tightened in the area following the shooting incident.