4 soldiers were killed in a firing incident at Bathinda army base
The army has conducted a security audit of its base in Punjab's Bathinda after four soldiers were killed in a firing incident on Wednesday morning, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
After the audit, General Manoj Pande briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter, sources said.
The audit raised questions about the security at the military station after a first information report (FIR) filed by a Major mentioned about two unknown masked men, one of them holding an INSAS assault rifle, fleeing towards a jungle near the base.
"If outsiders are involved, then how did they manage to enter the base, breaching its security? There is regular patrolling and even quick reaction teams are stationed at strategic locations throughout the cantonment," a senior government officer who is involved in looking into the incident told NDTV, asking not to be named.
The Bathinda cantonment is an important military installation. "It is a frontline station not far from Pakistan. The security around it should have been foolproof," the officer said.
The four soldiers killed in the firing incident belonged to an artillery unit of the army. The soldiers, in their mid-20s, were sleeping when the incident happened.
Investigators suspect an INSAS assault rifle and ammunition that went missing two days ago to be the weapon used in the incident. The gun and the magazine have been recovered, the army said in a statement this evening. They will be sent for forensic analysis.
Top sources in Delhi, however, have raised questions about what they say appear to be "gaps" in the FIR.
According to the FIR, an INSAS assault rifle, designated "weapon number 77", was issued to Lance Naik Mupdi Harish on March 31 this year and it went missing on April 9.
"Where the bodies were found a lot of empty shells were also recovered from there. It seems they are of INSAS weapon, which was stolen," the FIR says.
Sources said questions are being raised about how it has been decided that the spent cartridges belonged to "weapon number 77".
"All aspects, including the possible case of involvement of an INSAS rifle along with 28 rounds reported missing two days back, are being ascertained," the FIR says.
Bathinda cantonment police station officer Gurdeep Singh said they got a complaint about the missing rifle on Tuesday, two days after it went missing. The time gap in reporting the missing weapon to the police is also being investigated, sources said.
While the FIR says the firing incident happened at 4.30 am, the police station that is only 2 km away from the cantonment was informed about it at 2.56 pm and the first entry in the police diary about the incident was made at 3.03 pm, sources said.