When the gun meant for the enemy turns inward: Kathua killings put India's fratricide problem in uniform back in the spotlight

Four Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were shot dead by a colleague at the Sewa-II Hydroelectric Project in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on Tuesday evening, in what officials described as a case of fratricide following a verbal altercation. The incident took place around 7 pm at the CISF unit deployed to guard the hydel power station, located in Mashka village in Basohli, near the border with Himachal Pradesh.

According to officials, the accused, a 2009-batch Head Constable identified as Awdhesh Singh, opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle on his colleagues during a duty change, after an argument broke out among the personnel. He was reportedly carrying 150 rounds of ammunition. He was overpowered by other CISF personnel and handed over to the local police. The injured were first taken to the NHPC Hospital on the Himachal Pradesh side, where all four later succumbed to their injuries.

The deceased have been identified as Assistant Commandant Ankit Kumar Pandey, Sub-Inspector Lakshman Singh, Constable Rafiq Ahmed and Constable Sandeep Kumar. The CISF said the circumstances that led to the altercation and the subsequent firing remain under investigation, and has ordered a Court of Inquiry to establish the sequence of events. The accused is being questioned by Kathua district police.

A recurring pattern in the CAPFs

Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a series of fratricide cases that have periodically struck India’s Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), the umbrella term for forces such as the CISF, CRPF and BSF. In one earlier case, a CISF head constable shot dead three colleagues and injured two others at the force’s camp guarding the Kalpakkam nuclear complex in Tamil Nadu, after what was described at the time as the first such incident in the force in nearly a decade. In another, a BSF constable opened fire on his colleagues at a battalion headquarters in Amritsar after a verbal dispute turned violent, killing four fellow personnel before he himself was shot dead.

Why fratricide recurs in these forces

Security experts and internal reviews have repeatedly pointed to a common set of contributing factors behind such episodes, even though each individual case is investigated on its own facts.

Long and irregular duty hours are frequently cited. CAPF personnel guarding critical infrastructure, such as power projects, dams and nuclear facilities, often work extended shifts with limited rest, and disputes over duty rosters, leave sanctions or roster changes are a recurring trigger in past incidents, including the Kathua shooting, which reportedly began during a duty change.

Prolonged separation from family is another frequently cited factor. Personnel posted to remote or high-altitude locations, often for years at a stretch, with limited home leave, have in the past been flagged by parliamentary committees and internal force reviews as being at higher risk of psychological strain, which can manifest as irritability, poor impulse control or depression.

Ready access to automatic weapons compounds the risk. Unlike most workplace disputes, an altercation among armed personnel carrying service rifles has the potential to turn lethal within seconds, a dynamic evident in the Kathua case, where the accused reportedly had over a hundred rounds of ammunition on him at the time.

The stigma around seeking mental health support within hierarchical, discipline-focused forces has also been identified as a barrier. Personnel experiencing stress, family problems or interpersonal friction with colleagues or superiors often have few structured avenues to report distress before it escalates, and forces have historically relied on informal buddy systems and periodic counselling camps rather than embedded, continuous mental health support.

Friction with superiors or colleagues over perceived unfair treatment, promotions, postings or minor workplace slights has also featured in multiple past cases, sometimes building up over time before erupting in a single triggering argument, a pattern consistent with the “verbal altercation” cited in Tuesday’s incident.

The CISF’s Court of Inquiry is expected to establish the exact sequence of events and the underlying cause of the altercation. Fratricide incidents of this kind typically prompt renewed internal reviews of duty rosters, weapon-handling protocols and welfare measures within the affected force, though sustained structural changes across the CAPFs as a whole have been harder to achieve given the scale and remote deployment patterns of these forces.