Axe Baffles Bathinda Cops, No Trace Of 4 Military Killings

The two masked killers of four soldiers from an artillery unit at the Bathinda military station are still at large, and police are confused by the fact that one of them was seen carrying an axe, even though the four soldiers were killed by gunshots and doctors didn’t find any wounds from a sharp-edged weapon.

Yogesh Kumar, Sagar Banne, Kamlesh R, and Santosh M Nagaral, all gunners, died in the attack at 4:35 a.m. Wednesday. They were all between 24 and 25 years old.

No one knows for sure if the suspects were from the military station or if they broke in and then ran away after committing the crime.

“The 5th soldier who died killed himself and wasn’t involved in killing anyone else.”

Ajay Gandhi, the Bathinda SP in charge of investigations, said, “So far, we haven’t heard anything about the accused killers. The crime is being looked into by the police. The autopsy report says that all four people died because they were shot.

At about 4.30 p.m. Wednesday, another man named Laghuraj died at the military station. He had been shot in the head, and his duty gun was right next to him. Army officials say it looks like a suicide and has nothing to do with the deaths of the other four troops.

An FIR filed by Major Ashutosh Shukla says that soldier Desai Mohan told him that two people in white kurta-pyjamas with their faces and heads covered were seen leaving the barracks near the officers’ mess, with one carrying an Insas gun and the other an axe.

The suspects ran away in the direction of a bush next to the military station. The men who were killed were sleeping in two rooms on the first floor of the barracks where 19 spent shells were found.

On April 9, an Insas gun and 28 rounds went missing, so a report was made to the police. Wednesday night, search teams found an Insas, but they couldn’t tell if it was the same lost gun.