The Unfortunate Death Of Major Mohd Zahir Armaya (Innalillaah)

First of all my condolences to ALL the family of the late Major Mohd Zahir Armaya - (who was the son of our comedian AR Badul) - on their terrible loss.   The family has gone through a difficult time.

I received the videos of the incident within hours of its occurrence.  There are certain things that should be noted and action taken so that it does not happen again.

Here is a screen shot of Major Zahir (arrowed) standing with a small group of his commandos during the shooting exhibition. 

Note the numbers of other people in the vicinity. I mean ALL the people, soldiers and civilians. There are hundreds of people within the vicinity of the shooting demonstration. They were using live ammunition.  Please go to the next picture. 

There were also children watching the exhibition. 

And then there was a road where cars were driving by.  

In this screenshot again the soldiers on parade are all within a stone's throw of the shooting demonstration. 

My question is how can the Army use live ammunition in a public place in the first place? 

The Army should use live ammunition in a proper shooting range or weapons range which are custom designed for shooting live ammunition and where there are no civilians and children around. 

Anything can go wrong with guns and live ammunition. And if it does go wrong, any one of the hundreds of people in this parade ground could have been killed or hurt.  If that bullet had not hit Major Zahir Armaya it would have travelled straight and possibly hit someone else.

I am saying this for two reasons :

1. The Army was already being careless in the planning and execution of this shooting demonstration.

2. Then the Army has released a Press Statement which says that use of live ammunition enhances 'realistic' training for the troops. 

Yes Tuan, but you cannot use live ammunition in a parade ground full of hundreds of human beings - civilian and armed forces. That is irresponsible. And the Army should not be making defensive statements like this.

As for the shooting of the Major, it is obvious that the small group of commandos were all wearing bullet proof vests. 

Major Armaya first fired one shot at one of his colleagues who is also wearing a bullet proof vest.  I assume it was also a live bullet. The bullet proof vest stops the bullet but it does not help with absorbing the impact force and energy of the bullet. 

Hence in the video (its on You Tube) you can see the soldier buckle to his knees. There will also be some pain when the bullet hit  his vest.

As part of the demonstration the soldier then gets up and returns fire (shoots) Major Armaya in the back. This turned out to be the fatal shot.

At that close range I am certain that the soldier's return fire  hit the bullet proof vest that Major Armaya was wearing over his torso.  But something went wrong. 

I believe the bullet bounced (ricocheted) off the bullet proof vest and hit Major Armaya in the back of his head. That was the fatal injury.

Bullet proof vests are built in such a way that ricochets or bullets bouncing off does not happen. They would have both a soft and hard component.  Unless the vest has been modified by inserting hard or angled materials which may catch a bullet and cause it to bounce (ricochet) instead of absorbing (and destroying) the bullet.

The Army must do a proper investigation and please do not make statements to the Media without having all the facts in place. 

My final say is NEVER USE LIVE AMMUNITION in public areas attended by civilians and uniformed personnel. 

Use live ammunition only in designated firing ranges and weapons testing grounds.