In J&K’s Kathua, CISF head constable shoots dead four colleagues including assistant commandant
The four victims of the CISF fratricide. From L to R: Ankit Kumar Pandey, assistant commandant; Lakshman Singh, sub-inspector; Rafiq Ahmed, constable; and Sandeep Kumar, constable.
New Delhi: Four Central Industrial Security Force men, including an officer, were killed when a colleague allegedly opened fire at their unit near a hydroelectric project in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district on Tuesday. Police have taken the suspected shooter into custody, while investigators are trying to establish what led to the shooting.
The incident occurred at about 6.40pm at the CISF deployment in Mashka village, in the hilly Basohli area, according to initial reports. The four critically wounded men were taken to an NHPC hospital across the border in Himachal Pradesh, where they died of their injuries.
The dead included an assistant commandant and company commander, Ankit Kumar Pandey, and a sub-inspector, Lakshman Singh. According to initial reports, the other two were constables Rafiq Ahmed and Sandeep Kumar.
The suspected shooter has been identified as Avdesh Kumar Singh, head constable. He reportedly used his issued AK-47 service rifle after an argument. According to CISF sources, he had 150 rounds of ammunition, but the subject of the dispute and the sequence of events inside the unit remain unclear. Reports say that the suspected shooter had been apprehended and taken into custody.
The immediate provocation for the deadly shooting is still being ascertained.
The location adds an unusual practical difficulty to the inquiry. Although the site is in Kathua district, it lies near the Himachal Pradesh border and is reached by road through that state. Police will need to reconstruct the movements of personnel at the unit, examine the seized weapon and establish how the shooting unfolded.
The CISF guards power plants and other important infrastructure, as well as airports, ports and several government facilities. At a deployment such as Mashka, its personnel protect a civilian installation while working in a setting where colleagues carry firearms as part of their duties.
NHPC identifies Sewa II as a 120MW hydroelectric station with three 40MW generating units. Some early reports have used differing project names, but NHPC’s own material places Sewa II at Mashka in Kathua district; the shooting took place at the CISF unit serving the project, and there is no report that the generating equipment was attacked.
The deaths have prompted a criminal investigation into the alleged shooting and its cause. For now, the evidence made public supports neither a firm account of the dispute nor a broader claim about why the head constable allegedly fired.
