A day after a Major rank officer allegedly went berserk and opened fire on his colleagues and exploded grenades inside a camp of the Rashtriya Rifles Unit in the Thanna Mandi area of Rajouri district, several senior army officers went into a huddle on Friday to thoroughly investigate the matter so as to pinpoint the exact trigger point which may have ‘provoked’ him to target fellow soldiers of the same unit during a firing practice session.
The accused officer has been detained and subjected to questioning by the senior officers. A separate Court of Inquiry is most likely to be initiated by the Indian army after completing the necessary formalities.
Meanwhile, two senior officers who were shifted to the Command hospital in Udhampur on Thursday were operated upon and their condition was stated to be stable.
According to official sources in the Northern Command headquarters, both officers have been operated upon in the command hospital.
Their condition was stated to be stable by the team of doctors. However, one of them may face long-term eyesight issues as he had suffered grievous injury in the indiscriminate firing.
After the Major rank officer was captured late Thursday evening, the White Knight Corps of the army posted on X (previously Twitter), “On 05 Oct 23 one officer was injured in a likely grenade accident at a post in Rajouri sector. Officer evacuated and stable post initial treatment. Further investigation of the incident in progress”.
According to local residents of Village Dara, located in the close vicinity of a forward Naili post, the firing started in the afternoon on Thursday.
Speaking to The Pioneer over the telephone, Sarpanch Aqeel Ahmad said, “Initially we went into panic mode thinking terrorists had launched an attack in the close vicinity. But after some time we realized the firing was going on inside the army post. We ensured local residents remained indoors to prevent any untoward incident”. Aqeel Ahmad maintained life returned to normalcy on Friday.
Jammu and Kashmir witnessed such an incident after a gap of more than one year. On July 15, 2022, two jawans were killed and two others received injuries in an alleged fratricidal firing incident at an Army camp in the Surankote area of Poonch. The soldiers of 156 Territorial Army had reportedly clashed over a duty issue. According to official sources, 18 fratricide incidents reportedly occurred in the Indian Army and two in the Indian Air Force between 2014 and March 21, 2021.
According to ground reports, the trouble started during the firing practice session in the Army unit in the Thanna Mandi area of Rajouri.
The accused officer started firing on his colleagues and subordinates without any provocation. Later, he took shelter inside the armory of the camp and hurled grenades when the commanding officer, along with his deputy and Medical Officer, moved near the building in an effort to persuade him to surrender, official sources revealed.
Out of these three, two officers were injured when a grenade, hurled by the accused, exploded near them. The Commanding Officer reportedly escaped unhurt barring minor injuries. Two other soldiers were also injured in the indiscriminate firing by the accused who was overpowered around 11 pm, the sources said.