Bathinda/New Delhi, April 14
Two days after the sensational killing of four soldiers inside the heavily guarded Bathinda military station, the Army and the Punjab Police have been groping in the dark over identifying the killers.
A set of fingerprints has been “lifted” from an INSAS rifle that was stolen along with a 28-bullet magazine from the military station on April 9 and recovered from a ditch within the same campus on the evening of the crime on April 12. An official said the challenge now was to establish whose fingerprints these were. A forensic test is being conducted at a Mohali laboratory.
An FIR lodged by the Army at the Bathinda Cantt police station mentioned that “two persons in white ‘kurta pyjama’ were seen fleeing the spot after killing the four Army personnel in the wee hours”. Also, the lone eyewitness, Gunner Desai Mohan, is expected to be questioned again. The FIR is based on Desai’s statement on the description of the killers “who were carrying an INSAS rifle”. The probe is largely being handled by the Army.
The killed jawans belonged to the 80 Medium Regiment of Artillery. Three of them sustained two bullet injuries each while the fourth had a single bullet injury, as per the post-mortem report. The bodies of the victims have been despatched to their native places.
The crime spot had 19 empty shells of bullets. The INSAS, if it was used for the killings, is an automatic rifle, which can release bullets rapidly. The incident has raised serious security concerns as the Bathinda unit is among the largest military stations in the country and is located a mere 90 km from the border with Pakistan.
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