ITBP jawan who killed colleagues may have been gunned down
The incident took place in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, where Maoist rebels known as Naxalites are active, on Wednesday.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) trooper who killed five colleagues in Chhattisgarh may have been shot dead by one of his victims, contrary to an initial claim by the security force that he had turned the gun on himself after the shooting spree, two officers said on Thursday, as the ITBP initiated a court of inquiry in the matter..
It also emerged on Thursday that constable Masudul Rahman had been due to go on a month’s leave on Wednesday and had deposited his service weapon in the armoury, and used someone else’s rifle -- an AK-47 -- in the rampage.
One of the ITBP officers cited above said, requesting anonymity, that Rahman had an argument with another trooper from his home state, West Bengal, following which he picked up the rifle and started shooting at his colleagues before he was neutralized. Contrary to speculation that he killed himself, Rahman may have been shot to death by Surjit Sarkar, from West Bengal’s Burdwan, who too died in the incident. Sarkar may have shot Rahman to save the others, the officer said.
The incident took place in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, where Maoist rebels known as Naxalites are active, on Wednesday. Five ITBP men, including Sarkar, died in the shooting along with Rahman and two were injured.
Hindustan Times quoted Narayanpur’s superintendent of police Mohit Garg as saying that Rahman was gunned down by one of the jawans in self-defence. In New Delhi, an ITBP spokesperson had said Rahman killed the others and turned the gun on himself.
Inspector general of police, Bastar, Sundarraj P said ITBP officials visited the spot on Thursday and as per the perlimnary investigation, it appears that Rehman was gunned down by one of the injured constables who later succumb in hospital. “However, the autopsy report is yet to come that will reveal the exact details,” he added.
The second ITBP officer cited above said that Rahman, who joined the force in 2009, used to go on leave once a year and had never complained about not getting leave, contradicting a claim by the trooper’s father, Marfat Ali Sheikh of Bengal’s Nadia district, that his son hadn’t been able to come home because he wasn’t getting leave.
“He was a disciplined soldier against whom not a single complaint was received by his company commander. He too never showed any signs of work stress or lodged a complaint with his seniors raising any issue,” the officer added.
The incident happened against the backdrop of ITBP engaging an arm of the Defence Research and Development Organisation to study long-term problems, including stress, faced by its men when they are posted in the Himalayas and other operational areas.
Several parliamentary committees have repeatedly flagged the fact that troopers in central paramilitary forces, particularly the Central Reserve Police Force, ITBP and the Border Security Force, didn’t get sufficient holidays and had to work beyond 12 hours every day.
To be sure, the paramilitary forces have issued guidelines to their battalion/company commanders to make sure everyone gets leaves on time and that the reasons should be identified and personnel should be encouraged to go on leave if they aren’t availing of their time off.
According to a home ministry data, about 700 personnel of paramilitary forces have committed suicide between 2012 and 2017 for various reasons including “lack of stability, loneliness and domestic strife”. Former BSF director general Prakash Singh said: “I don’t know what exactly happened in this case but I know that even though a company commander is the sanctioning authority for leaves, it is not always easy to sanction all the leaves in an operational area.”
