Army probes death of JCO as questions raised over the killing

Army is probing reasons behind the death of a Junior Commissioned Officer, who was killed at Uri in North Kashmir, even as questions were being raised over the incident with the force today claiming that he died in "fire" from unknown area along the LoC.
"It is not clear whether the JCO belonging to 8 Kumaon Unit was killed yesterday in firing by Pakistan Army or terrorists from across the Jhelum river, which is the LoC in that sector. We are trying to ascertain the exact reasons behind the death," an Army official said in Delhi.
A Defence spokesman of 15 Corps had said yesterday that JCO Prakash Chand died when Pakistani troops resorted to ceasefire violation and fired at Bhim Post near Kaman Bridge.

But today, he gave a new theory saying the incident could not be treated as ceasefire violation as Army was not sure about the area from where the fire came.
"When the fire comes from post to post, it is called ceasefire violation and this firing happened where there was no post," he said.
On not handing over the body to local police for postmortem, he said, "It's a battle casualty and not a medico-legal case. So it's not mandatory to hand over the body to the police. FIR was lodged by the Unit and the police has given no objection certificate."

Local police, however, said the NoC was issued after the Army claimed that the next of kin had made a request for handing over the body.

The postmortem was necessary to ascertain the distance from which the bullet was fired as it was alleged that the death of the JCO was a case of fratricide, police said.
Army sources contested claims that the JCO had died in friendly fire saying it was not the case as there was a fire fight.
They said the JCO was hit while carrying out an area domination patrol but were not sure as to who was behind the incident.

Chand, a resident of Uttarakhand, was hit on his head at 0015 hours between Kaman and Bhim posts. He was rushed to an army medical facility where he died.