Shielded by draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to suppress the ongoing freedom movement in occupied Jammu and Kashmir have made trigger-happy Indian forces’ personnel unbridled so much so that they have, now, started targeting colleagues as well as civilian population inside India with impunity.
The latest such incident took place in Kolkata where a head constable of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) opened fire in the Indian Museum premises killing an assistant sub-inspector and injuring an assistant commandant.
The police said that the accused fired at least 15 rounds. He was arrested by the Kolkata Police. The victims were rushed to the hospital where ASI Ranjit Kumar Sarangi died. Subir Ghosh, the assistant commandant suffered bullet injuries on his wrist.
“The accused was convinced, disarmed, and arrested. Why he opened fire is yet to be ascertained. The investigation is going on,” said Vineet Kumar Goyal, commissioner of Kolkata Police.
It is a high-security zone as the MLA hostel is located at a stone’s throw from the Indian Museum.
The accused, Akshaye Kumar Mishra, went into hiding after opening fire from his automatic rifle. He was arrested after almost one and a half hours.
The Indian Museum is the largest and oldest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. CISF took over the security of the museum in December 2019.
The incident brought back memories when an on-duty constable of Kolkata Police indiscriminately opened fire from his service rifle killing a woman passer-by and injuring two other men before shooting himself at Park Circus in June this year.
