Tiff gets out of hand, jawan kills 2 officers

An Army jawan shot dead two of his senior officers, including a junior commissioned officer after an argument on the Jammu-Srinagar highway ...

An Army jawan shot dead two of his senior officers, including a junior commissioned officer after an argument on the Jammu-Srinagar highway near Batote, official sources said here today.

Sources said Sepoy Pradeep Rao who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol had a verbal altercation with his colleague, Sepoy D.S.Rao, then on duty at Batote Army Camp on the National Highway, 120 km from here, in Doda district.

On hearing Pradeep abuse his colleagues, Subedar G.H. Haldar, tried to intervene. When the Subedar warned him, Pradeep opened fire from his service rifle killing both Haldar and Sepoy D.S. Rao on the spot. The other Army personnel present there pounced on Rao and overpowered him.

A case has been registered against him and investigation into the circumstances that led to the incident are on. Tiff over some trivial issue is believed to be reason behind the shootout.

Meanwhile, security forces gunned down three top Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including a district commander, busted four militant hideouts and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition in search operations, sources said today. Three Lashkar militants, identified as Pakistanis, were gunned down during an 18-hour long gunbattle at Sanai area of Surankote tehsil on Tuesday, sources said.

Security forces also recovered three AK rifles with two magazines and 56 rounds of ammunition, a radio set and a matrix sheet from the slain militants, they said. In another search operation, security forces busted terrorist hideouts at Bahuwali forest in Jammu district, Thanamandi and Darhal areas of Rajouri district and Surankote tehsil of Poonch, the sources said.

During the operations, 22 grenades, 150 rounds of ammunition, 20 rounds of ballistic cartridges and some household items were recovered, they said.