Four soldiers killed in Indian military base shooting

Four soldiers have been killed in a shooting incident at a military base in the Indian border state of Punjab.

The army in a statement said the four soldiers succumbed to gunshot injuries sustained during the shooting, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning, adding that a search operation for the shooters was ongoing.

The statement did not mention the circumstances or other details about who was responsible for the incident.

The incident took place at 4:35 a.m. (2305 GMT Tuesday), an earlier army statement said.

The incident was “not a terror attack”, and took place in a canteen, a senior police official in Punjab, S.P.S. Parmar said.

An unknown number of shooters were at large at the base in Bathinda city, a defence source said, declining to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter.

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The base was sealed off and a joint investigation with the local police was on, the army statement said, adding that no other injuries and damage to property was reported.

“All aspects including the possible case of involvement of an (assault) rifle along with 28 rounds reported missing two days back are being ascertained,” the army said.

Visuals showed barricades placed on the road outside the gates of the military station and security personnel deployed outside the boundary wall.

The military base, about 280 km (175 miles) northwest of New Delhi, houses mostly families of soldiers. The border with Pakistan is about 100 km (62 miles) west of Bathinda.

Zainab Sa’id