Army killing raises eyebrows

BHUJ, June 8: The official version of the killing of Hussain Kutchhi Mandhra, the man who led a gang of five Pakistanis into Kutch with 2...

BHUJ, June 8: The official version of the killing of Hussain Kutchhi Mandhra, the man who led a gang of five Pakistanis into Kutch with 24 kg of RDX and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition last week, is being taken with a pinch of salt by certain security and Intelligence agencies here.

The questions being asked are why Mandhra, who held many secrets including the final destination and the purpose of the deadly consignment he brought from Pakistan, was shot dead when he was unarmed. It was felt that his killing would hamper the investigation.

Of all the central agencies, the Border Security Force is the most unhappy. It was they who first noticed the footprints and later arrested the Pakistani boatman who had brought the five intruders from Pakistan. BSF officers feels that the police had not only manipulated8217; the entire operation, but was trying to take all the credit.

There are discrepancies between the various versions of the incident in which Mandhra was killed. For instance, Gujarat8217;s Director General of Police C P Singh has said that Mandhra was shot by the guards of an air defence unit of the Army after he was seen moving about suspicious circumstances near their ammunition store. No weapon was found on Mandhra.

But a senior Army officer told Newsline on Monday that the police, in pursuit of the Pakistani intruder, had sought their help to nab him. Mandhra fired on the Armymen and they returned the fire, killing him on the spot. However, on Tuesday, another officer said it was the Intelligence Bureau which sought their help and Mandhra was killed when he tried to flee. The officer also said Mandhra did not have any weapon on him.

Sources find it strange that while the other five intruders, who had been arrested earlier, carried arms and ammunition, their leader was unarmed. The five had told the police that Mandhra carried Rs 1 lakh, but only Rs 16,000 was found on him. Also, no one except the five knew Mandhra, yet they were not taken for his identification, sources said.

A BSF officer also questioned the Gujarat DGP8217;s statement, made at a press briefing in Ahmedabad on June 6, that on June 2 some 8220;pagis8221; footprint readers were hired by the BSF, but it was during the police vigil on the international border that a boat with a Pakistani boatman was spotted.

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The BSF officer claimed that the Pagis were on the BSF pay-roll and the Pakistani boatman, along with the boat, was caught by them and then handed over to the police. They also pointed out that the international border was manned by the BSF, and not by the police.

On Tuesday, even senior BJP leader Pushpadan Gadhvi, a member of the dissolved Lok Sabha, expressed unhappiness that due credit was not given to the BSF. Gadhvi also said he was writing to the Centre and the State Government to reward the pagi8217; who first noticed the footprints and then walked 30 km in the Rann in search of the intruders.