Four killed in shooting by comrade at paramilitary camp in Central India

A paramilitary soldier killed four of his comrades and injured another inside a camp in central India, an official said Sunday.

The trooper turned his gun on his fellow soldiers at around 5:00 pm local time Saturday in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state.

The constable from India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire following a reported altercation.

“He fired on four of his CRPF colleagues, who died on the spot. Another one, an ASI (assistant sub-inspector), was injured in the incident,” a Bijapur administrative official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

A senior state police officer, Sundar Raj P., told local media late Saturday that “what happened, why he did it, under what circumstances – these are matters that are being investigated.”

He said the officer, 35-year-old Sanath Kumar, was arrested and was being interrogated.

Chhattisgarh’s chief minister took to Twitter to condemn the killing of the CRPF soldiers, who are deployed for counter-insurgency operations. The state is a hotbed of an insurgency. India’s security forces, often working away from home for months, have historically had a high incidence of suicides and killings linked to long hours, poor working conditions and inadequate time off.

In January, a paramilitary soldier from one of India’s elite security units shot dead four of his senior officers in an apparent row over leave.