High alert on border after Pak troopers slit BSF jawan's throat

Jammu/New Delhi: Pakistani troopers on Tuesday slit the throat of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan after shooting him along the international border (IB) near Jammu, Indian officials said on Wednesday.

The brutal incident, which took place in the Ramgarh sector, has prompted the security forces to issue a "high alert" across the IB and 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 Narender Kumar also bore three bullet wounds when it was retrieved from a spot near the Indo-Pak fence. BSF men had to wait for over six hours as the Pakistani side "did not respond" to the calls to maintain the sanctity of the frontier and ensure that the search parties were not fired upon.

The Pakistan Rangers, the sources said, was asked to take part in a joint patrolling to trace the missing jawan, but they only came up to a certain point and cited waterlogging problems in the area that prevented them from undertaking a coordinated action.

Night operation

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".

Officials in the security establishment said the incident of brutality with the jawan, probably a first at the IB, was taken "very seriously" by the government and the Ministry of External Affairs and the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) were also expected to take up the issue with their Pakistani counterparts.

The BSF patrol party that went ahead of the fence to cut the elephant grass was first fired upon at 10.40 am on Tuesday.

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 jawan was killed on the spot after he was hit by sniper shot from across the border, a BSF source said.

The BSF's Jammu frontier had on Tuesday 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" growth 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.

In September 2016, India had conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) and destroyed terrorist launchpads.

India carried out the surgical strikes after terrorists attacked Army headquarters in Uri killing 17 soldiers.