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Indian soldier 'shoots self' at same base where four others killed

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Four Indian soldiers were killed in Punjab on Tuesday.
Four Indian soldiers were killed in Punjab on Tuesday.
Keshav Singh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
  • A soldier in the Indian state of Punjab has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. 
  • Earlier in the day, four soldiers were killed at the same army base by unknown attackers. 
  • The incidents are unrelated, according to the Indian army. 


A soldier has died of a gunshot wound at a military base in India's northwestern border state of Punjab, but it was not related to the killing of four soldiers there hours earlier, the Indian army said.

The soldier at Bathinda Military Station was thought to have shot himself on Wednesday evening, the army said in a statement on Thursday.

"There is no connection whatsoever" to the killing of four soldiers by unknown attackers 12 hours earlier, it added.

"The soldier was on sentry duty with his service weapon. The weapon and cartridge case from the same weapon was found next to the soldier," the statement said.

The soldier, who had returned from leave on 11 April, was rushed to a military hospital, where he died of his injuries, it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, four soldiers were shot to death in their sleep in the barracks by two people. Punjab state police said it was "not a terror attack".

One of the attackers is thought to have used an assault rifle that was reported missing from the base two days earlier.

The rifle with 28 rounds was reported missing and was found after the killing of the four soldiers. But the attackers had not been caught, the army said.

It said:

The … number of rounds [unused] in the weapon will only be available after forensic analysis. The joint investigation with Punjab police is in progress.

The military base, located about 280km northwest of capital New Delhi and 100km east of the border with Pakistan, houses mostly families of soldiers.



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