The Indian Army station at Bathinda in Punjab has a lot of explaining to do about incidents on the campus. The death of four jawans in an obviously planned attack at night and the death by suicide of another jawan the next day appear mysterious enough for the joint inquiry by the Army authorities and the Punjab Police to be thorough, transparent and be exhaustive in addressing the obvious lapse in security.
Common sense would suggest that once a rifle and 28 rounds of ammunition had gone missing two days earlier from the camp that mostly houses families of soldiers, a mess and barracks, the Army station should have had its antenna up and a high level alert sounded for tightening security and posting of guards at night. To lose young soldiers in situations like this is too tragic for words.
It might be a matter of miniscule consolation that a terror attack, even if the conclusion by the police appeared to come a touch too early, has been ruled out and that fratricide is suspected as the cause of the unfortunate deaths of four serving jawans. If indeed the killers were from within the fraternity, it should narrow the field in looking for the suspects.
Had the killer or killers come from outside, the chances of success in a manhunt cannot be considered too high given the Punjab Police record of tracing the Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh. The closeness to the Pakistan border, just 100 km away, should suggest that all angles, including terror, be investigated thoroughly and the culprits brought to book.
Given the secrecy of enquiries run by the Army internally, it would be in the best interest of all that the public be informed of what exactly happened and why such a lapse of security could occur that intruders, even if they were insiders, be allowed to go on a shooting spree with a stolen service rifle. The need for security in large Army establishments in a frontier state need hardly be stressed. Vigil is an eternal challenge which comes with the job.
