J&K: Pakistani troops slit BSF jawan's throat, high alert sounded along border

Pakistani troops have slit the throat of a BSF jawan along the International Border (IB) near Jammu.

The jawan was identified as Head Constable Narender Kumar.The incident took place on Tuesday in the Ramgarh sector.

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Kumar's body could only be recovered six hours after he was killed since the Pakistan Rangers on the other side of the border did not respond to calls from the BSF to not shoot at the search parties looking for him.

The Border Security Force finally had to wait for dark and then carry out a "risky"operation to retrieveKumar's body.

When they found Kumar, the BSF discovered that he had also been shot three times.

Security forces have issued a "high alert" along the IB and the Line of Control (LoC).

The Border Security Force has lodged a strong complaint with its counterparts — the Pakistan Rangers.

Officials in the security establishment said the brutality of the incident, probably a first along 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.

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," an official 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" 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.

(With inputs from PTI)