NEW DELHI: A paramilitary soldier has killed four of his comrades and injured another inside a camp in central India, an official said on Sunday.

The trooper turned his gun on his fellow soldiers at around 5:00 pm local time on Saturday in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state. The constable from India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) opened fire following a reported altercation.

“He fired on four of his CRPF colleagues, who died on the spot. Another one, an ASI (assistant sub-inspector), was injured in the incident,” a Bijapur administrative official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A senior state police officer, Sundar Raj P., told local media late on Saturday that “what happened, why he did it, under what circumstances -- these are matters that are being investigated”.

He said the officer, 35-year-old Sanath Kumar, was arrested and was being interrogated.

Chhattisgarh’s chief minister took to Twitter to condemn the killing of the CRPF soldiers, who were deployed for counter-insurgency operations. The state is a hotbed of a Maoist insurgency.

India’s security forces, often working away from home for months, have historically had a high incidence of suicides and killings linked to long hours, poor working conditions and inadequate time off.

In January, a paramilitary soldier from one of India’s elite security units shot dead four of his senior officers in an apparent row over leave.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2017