An investigation conducted by the Indian Army into the killing of rifleman Aurangzeb has revealed that soldiers who were deployed in the same battalion may have tipped-off militants about his presence.
The Army has detained three soldiers of 44 Rashtriya Rifles in connection with the killing of Aurangzeb in June 2018. It comes after the investigation suggested that they may have disclosed the fellow soldier's whereabouts to the militants.
Aurangzeb's body was found in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. He was killed while returning home to Mendhar in Poonch, nearly 250 kilometres from Srinagar.
Aurangzeb's killing turned into a high-profile issue after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat paid separate visits to his family. He was later awarded Shaurya Chakra.
Nearly 50 youth from Aurangzeb's native village left their jobs in Saudi Arabia to join Indian Army after they received the news of his killing. His father recently joined BJP in the presence of PM Narendra Modi.
Aurangzeb's killing was also followed by a string of cases of abduction and murder of various J&K Police personnel and CRPF soldiers. The soldier is also believed to be a part of the forces team that killed a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Sameer Tiger.
The sources in the Army said that the recruitment of local youth in Army and other police forces is detrimental to the militant operations and in order to bring such hirings to a halt, the militants had designed to kill the local recruits within security forces.
"Many security operations have been successful because these local recruits have more knowledge about the area and militants, which is definitely upsetting the latter," an official said.
Hizbul Mujahideen had issued a threat to the youth wishing to join police saying that whoever joins the police forces should be ready to face consequences.
