A Territorial Army (TA) jawan opened indiscriminate fire from his service weapon killing two women residents and wounding two other persons, including his wife in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier town of Poonch on Wednesday.
The accused, who tried to kill himself too, was immediately arrested by the local police which is investigating the cause behind shooting incident.
The incident came at a time when security forces are enforcing strict restrictions in neighbouring town of Rajouri following minor clashes in wake of VHP acting president Praveen Togadia’s hate speech at a rally on Sunday. The police has registered a case against Mr Togadia and various political and social organisations have strongly resented his alleged anti-Muslim diatribe and criticised the government for allowing him to visit a sensitive place only to stir-up communal tensions.
The police and witnesses said Tariq Ahmed Khan, alias Pathan, a soldier with 150 Territorial Army and presently deployed at 37 Rashtriya Rifles unit at neighbouring Mendhar township, was on Wednesday morning seen walking towards his home at Alabar on the peripheries of Poonch town, 240-km northwest of winter capital Jammu, angrily asking about his wife. On being alerted by neighbours, she rushed out and took shelter in one of the adjacent houses. The jawan, on finding her away, set his house to fire and then went to the neighbour’s house and dragged his wife out and shot at her in the open. He also shot two female neighbours Tahira Begum and Yasmin when they tried to intervene causing their instant death. Witnesses also said that the jawan then went to the root top of his neighbour’s house and opened indiscriminate fire wounding another person.