Killing of soldiers ruled unlawful

Major James Joshua Bowman, Lieutenant Neal Turkington and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, all of 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were killed in the attack on their base in Helmand Province in the early hours of July 13 last year, the inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was told.

Wiltshire Coroner David Ridley yesterday recorded verdicts of unlawful killing for all three and said: “I am satisfied that all three were killed as a result of the actions of the member of the Afghan National Army (ANA). I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt to that effect and therefore the appropriate conclusion is to record here that each were unlawfully killed while on lawful service in Afghanistan.”

The inquest heard that Sergeant Talib Hussein, 23, of the ANA, shot Maj Bowman, 34, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, dead in his sleeping quarters in Patrol Base 3 (PB3) in Nahr-e Saraj district, near Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah.

He then fired into the base’s command centre, killing Lt Turkington, 26, from Craigavon, Northern Ireland, and Cpl Pun, 33, from Nepal, and wounding four other UK soldiers before he escaped from the base.

Post-mortem examinations found that Maj Bowman, Lt Turkington and Cpl Pun all died from gunshot wounds, the inquest was told.

Mr Ridley said he accepted PB3 fell under the remit of the Government and the Army’s obligations under the European Convention for Human Rights.

But he ruled that he saw no evidence of any breaches of this by the Army in its obligations to protect the three soldiers from such an incident.

“In this case the possibility of an ANA attack was known but it was never perceived at any level either by those based at PB3 or higher up as a real risk, an actual risk.”