One Army jawan lost his life in accidental firing at Bathinda Military Station on Wednesday. As per the report filed with police by the Army, when the alert was sounded during yesterday’s shooting, the jawan was setting up his weapon and in the process accidentally shot himself. An statement by the Army, however, said the jawan might have attempted to die by suicide.
The Army’s reported that this was a separate incident and has no relation to April 12 shooting inside the Military Station. The gunshot wound was near the right temporal region and the jawan was immediately evacuated to the Military Hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.
The soldier had returned from leave on 11 April 2023. The case purportedly seems to be of attempted suicide., a statement said.
Four Army jawans were killed early Wednesday in firing inside a military station in Bathinda in Punjab, triggering a hunt for two men spotted at the scene of the attack with their faces covered and armed with a rifle and an axe.
The four personnel, in their mid 20s, were sleeping when the firing took place around 4:30 am in their barracks near the officers’ mess in the artillery unit.
According to “the information we have gathered so far, it is clear that it is not a terrorist act," a senior police officer said.
Initially, the police suggested that it was an incident of “fratricide". However, officials later said there was no clarity on the incident yet.
It is learnt that Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter.
Army sources said a court of inquiry (CoI) will investigate the entire incident in addition to the ongoing probe by the state police with support from the force.
It is suspected that an INSAS rifle, which was reported missing along with 28 rounds earlier this week, was used in the firing incident. The Army said on Wednesday a search team has located the INSAS rifle along with the magazine.
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