Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu/NEW DELHI, Sept 19: India has lodged a protest with Pakistan over the killing of a BSF personnel along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, during the Directorate of Military Operations-level talks, Army sources said.
“In the functional-level talks held yesterday, India lodged a protest against a ceasefire violation along the International Border targeting the BSF personnel,” the sources said.
Pakistani troops slit the throat of a Border Security Force jawan, Narender Kumar, after fatally shooting him along the International Border near Jammu on Tuesday.
The brutal and “unprecedented” incident that took place in the Ramgarh sector has prompted the security forces to issue a “high alert” along the IB and the Line of Control (LoC) even as the BSF has lodged a strong complaint with its counterparts — the Pakistan Rangers.
Official sources said the body of Head Constable Kumar also bore three bullet wounds and it could only be retrieved from a spot ahead of the Indo-Pak fence after over six hours as the Pakistani side “did not respond” to the calls to maintain the sanctity of the frontier and ensure that the BSF search parties were not fired upon.
In May, the Director General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan had agreed to “fully implement” the ceasefire pact of 2003 in “letter and spirit” forthwith to stop cross border firings in Jammu and Kashmir.
This was agreed during a hotline conversation between the two countries against the backdrop of increasing ceasefire violations along the LoC.
However, tensions along the IB and LoC still prevail.
Yesterday, the Pakistan Rangers, the sources said, were asked to take part in a joint patrolling to trace the missing jawan, but they only came up to a certain point and cited water logging problems in the area that prevented them from undertaking a coordinated action.
The BSF then waited for the Sun to set and launched a “risky operation” to bring the jawan’s body back to the post by “late evening”.
They added that since the BSF patrol party that went ahead of the fence to cut the tall “sarkanda” (elephant) grass was first fired upon at 10.40 am on Tuesday, hectic phone calls and communication exchanges went on from the Indian side to across the border in order to locate the jawan, who was first declared missing.
While the BSF did not comment on the developments, sources said the force had alerted all its formations along the IB and informed the Army to be vigilant at the LoC.
“The body of the jawan bears three bullet injuries and his throat has been slit. This is an unprecedented action that has happened with the Indian forces along the IB and the Pakistani troopers are behind this. The BSF and other forces will undertake a counter-action at a suitable time,” sources said.
The jawan was killed on the spot after he was hit by a fatal sniper shot from across the border, he added.
The BSF’s Jammu frontier had yesterday issued a statement on the incident but did not mention anything about the hacking.
“A BSF party that was on domination patrolling ahead of the fence was fired upon. The BSF troops immediately took position and retaliated but the enemy bullets hit a jawan. The area on the Pakistani side has a protective bundh close to the IB,” the force had said in the statement.
It had added that the area on the Indian side was undulated, marshy and had a thick “sarkanda” grass that made tracing the location of the felled jawan difficult.
The incident came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the maiden “smart fence” project of the BSF in Jammu on Monday that aims to deploy smart technology and gadgets to secure the vulnerable patches on the Indo-Pak border.
Sources said Pakistan was frustrated due to construction of smart fencing at two places on the border as pilot projects as it will prevent infiltration of the militants into Jammu. The Centre proposed to enhance the smart fencing gradually to other places on the International Border.
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