Following the deaths of four soldiers in a shooting at Bathinda Military Station on April 12, a claim is going viral that the soldiers belonged to the 18 Horse Regiment of the Indian Army.
On April 12, 2023, four soldiers were killed in a shooting on April at Punjab’s Bathinda Military Station. The incident took place at 4.35 am in the base’s barracks. Police say the incident was “not a terror attack” and the assailants’ details are unclear. An FIR has been filed against two unknown persons.
Claim:
Twitter user Saffron Diaries shared a claim: “Sources within the #IndianArmy have reported that a Sikh soldier allegedly killed four Hindu soldiers belonging to the 18 Horse Regiment at the Bathinda Military Cantonment.”
The claim is viral across Twitter and Facebook.
Fact Check:
We conducted a keyword search for the identities of the deceased and as per media reports, the four soldiers killed in the attack were Gunners Yogesh Kumar, Sagar Banne, Kamlesh R, and Santosh M Nagaral, all reported to within 24-25 years of age.
We then searched for reports that carried the contents of the FIR and came across an Indian Express report published on April 12, 2023. As per the FIR by Major Ashutosh Shukla of 80 Medium Regiment of Artillery with the Bathinda police, the four Jawans were staying in a barrack adjacent to the officer’s mess.
Major Shukla noted in his complaint that all four jawans were sleeping in their respective rooms after having completed their duty on Tuesday night. He said that around 4.30 AM, another Jawan informed him that a firing incident had occurred at the barrack.
“Major Shukla stated that when he reached the spot along with another officer of the unit, he saw two men of medium height and good build, wearing kurta-pyjamas, with one of them having an INSAS rifle in his hand and another with an axe. Both had their faces and heads covered with cloth, he added. He further said the two fled from the spot on seeing him and ran towards an adjacent forest,” the Indian Express report noted. The soldiers were from the 80 Artillery Regiment.
Another report by the Quint contained the translation of the entire statement of Major Ashutosh Shukla. The Quint noted that all jawans went back to their rooms post-duty. Yogesh Kumar and Sagar Banne went to their room on the 1st floor, with Santosh and Kamlesh in the adjacent room and Naga Suresh in the room below. All of the jawans were sleeping.
“Today at 4:30 a.m. Gunner Desai Mohan told me that firing took place inside unit mess barrack and two unidentified persons wearing white kurta pyjama with their faces covered (masked), were seen coming out of the barracks opposite the mess in which the gunners were sleeping,” the Quint report reads.
We also checked for the ‘18 Horse Regiment’ in the Indian army and found that no such regiment exists. As per the Indian Army’s website, the army has 1 horse, 14 Horse, 4 Horse, 9 Horse, 17 Horse, and Central India Horse regiments.
We also found a 2020 Gazette notification issued by the Pakistan government. One of the officers appointed as Colonel of the regiment/battalion. One of the noted regiments is “18 Horse.”
Conclusion:
We found that the claim about the ‘18 Horse’ regiment is false because the regiment does not exist in the Indian Army. The deceased soldiers were from the 80 Artillery Regiment. The identity of the killers has not been ascertained yet by police or the army and investigations are ongoing. Hence, the viral claim is false.
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Fact Check
2023-04-16 11:02:14.0
Are The Four Soldiers killed In The Bathinda Firing From ‘18 Horse Regiment’? No, Viral Claim Is False
