Four CISF men killed in firing
In a rare incident of fratricide, a head constable of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), allegedly shot dead four security personnel, including two officers, with his service weapon late Tuesday evening at the Sewa-II Hydroelectric Project unit in the Basohli area of Kathua district of Jammu division.
The firing incident was reported inside the office premises of the CISF personnel around 7.00 pm.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused head constable barged inside the office premises and opened indiscriminate fire with his service weapon (AK-47 Rifle). The injured CISF personnel, bleeding profusely, were rushed to a hospital in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, where they later succumbed to their injuries.
Following the incident, the head constable was apprehended and handed over to the police.
An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the circumstances under which the firing incident took place.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, Mohita Sharma, confirmed the incident and said police teams have already launched investigations into the firing incident. According to preliminary information, "Four Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were allegedly shot dead by a 2009-batch Head Constable of the force following a verbal argument among them over an issue at the Sewa-II Hydroelectric Project unit in Kathua.
The accused head constable has been identified as Abdesh Kumar of CISF. The deceased CISF personnel have been identified as Assistant Commandant Ankit Kumar Pandey (Company Commander), SI Lakshman Singh, CT Sanjeev Kumar, and CT Mohd. Rafiq. Earlier, on December 8, 2024, a head constable of Jammu and Kashmir police allegedly shot dead his colleague in a fit of anger before shooting himself dead with his service weapon in a moving police van on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway near Udhampur.
A similar incident of fratricide was reported in the Udhampur district in July 2022. At that time, a jawan of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force, deployed on Amarnath yatra duty, opened fire on his colleagues near Devika Ghat community centre. In the firing incident, three ITBP jawans received injuries, while one of them was found dead inside the Devika Ghat community centre.
On July 15, 2022, two soldiers of the Indian Army were killed while two others were injured in a similar firing incident inside a Surankote-based territorial army camp in Poonch.
