Clarity is yet to emerge in a baffling shootout incident that took place around 4:35 am on Wednesday morning near the Officers’ Mess at the army base in Punjab’s Bathinda where four soldiers were gunned down.
The fallen soldiers, whose families had been informed, belonged to an artillery unit.
An INSAS rifle, missing for the last two days, was found abandoned inside the military cantonment with no trace of the perpetrator(s).
Even as the army establishment remained tightlipped on the details, an investigation is already underway which will also look into whether there is a link between the attack and the INSAS rifle that had gone missing two days ago from the base along with 28 rounds of ammunition.
Asking the media to refrain from speculating considering the “sensitivities” involved, the Indian Army’s Jaipur-headquartered South Western command said in a statement: “A search team has located the INSAS rifle along with the magazine. Army and Police Joint teams will now be undertaking forensic analysis of the weapon for ascertaining further details… The balance number of rounds in the weapon will only be available after forensic analysis.”
Punjab Police, which has been indicating the incident to be ‘fratricidal’, is part of the joint probe team along with the Army.
State Additional Director General of Police, SPS Parmar, told agencies: “It is not a terrorist attack, it is not an attack from outside. It is a fratricidal incident. We are in touch with the Army authorities.”
However, the ‘fratricide’ theory may not hold true on several counts. One, such ‘fratricidal’ incidents are usually spur-of-the-moment incidents arising from a hot-tempered exchange, which apparently does not seem to be the case here. The INSAS rifle missing for two days may mean that it was a planned incident.
The very early morning timing of the incident is unlikely of a fratricidal incident.
Moreover, there is no clarity on the number of shooters. If it is more than one, a ‘fratricidal’ incident can possibly be ruled out. Also the puzzle as to how the attacker(s) is still not being found and apprehended given the fact that the cantonment was sealed off almost immediately by the Army’s Quick Reaction Teams.
The Army statement also denied reports of one shooter being nabbed. “It is reiterated that ‘NO’ individual has been detained or apprehended,” it said.
Punjab has been in the news in recent months because of re-emergence of elements of the separatist Khalistan movement with many individuals being rounded up and detained even as one of the main leaders, Amritpal Singh Sandhu, continues to evade the security forces and has been declared a fugitive.
A returnee from Dubai, Amritpal is a self-styled religious preacher and leader of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ (Heirs of Punjab) who is reported to have stockpiled illegal weapons and raising a private militia named Anandpur Khalsa Fauj.