Even as Imran Khan, Pakistan’s new Pak PM talks about improving Indo-Pak relations and suggests high-level meetings at UNGA, the ground reality remains stark as evidenced by the brutal murder of BSF head constable Narender Kumar.
Narender Kumar was ambushed by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) on Tuesday. When the BSF realised Kumar was missing, they ran pillar to post but were unable to find any information about him. What happened after that was even more perturbing.
Around 2AM on Wednesday, when BSF called up the Pak Rangers authorities, no one picked up the phone. After calling thrice, the Pak rangers picked up and said they would confer with their senior authorities. After making the BSF wait for a while, they called that and denied any sort of firing or any incident of note.
After that, the BSF authorities told their counterparts that they would go to the border area to investigate his disappearance and that Pakistani rangers shouldn’t fire at the search party.At 5 AM, Pak’s rangers said that Indian securitymen can search the borders for their lost compatriot. A search party found Narender Kumar’s dead body lying in the wild grass.
Earlier, while worried about their missing jawan, BSF authorities called up the Indian Army and asked them to raise the issue at DGMO level with their Pak counterparts. According to sources, the talks between the two sides took place around 2:30 AM when the Indian Army asked Pak Army about the missing jawan. However, the Pak side was completely unhelpful and even denied that there was any firing.
Narender Kumar’s body was found around six hours after he went missing. According to BSF’s statement, around 10:40 AM there was firing from the Pak side in Ramgarh Sector. At that time, Narender Kumar was out for patrolling along with his party. During this time Narender Kumar alias Singh got separated from his party.
Soon after that, the BSF started searching for him and the Pak side was informed that they would cross the area. This is standard operating procedure. They had been told that the 176 battalion’s 8 jawans would be out in that area but what the Pak Rangers did was against the laid-down rules of engagement. When he was found, Narender Kumar's body was slit at the throat and had 3 bullets in his body.
In a statement, the BSF said the incident happened after the Pakistani side resorted to unprovoked firing on a BSF party at Ramgarh sector which went ahead of the border fence to cut the tall elephant grass (Sarkanda). "Such tactical patrol is routinely sent to clear the wild vegetation for clearing the field of view along the International Border. This area also carries importance as Pakistan side has a 'protective bundh' closer to the International Border," the statement said.
"With the reinforcement from company Headquarters, the complete area was sanitized first and then the search started for the missing jawan. The area between the fence and the International Border is undulating, marshy and has thick sarkanda growth which made the search difficult," the statement said, adding "that after some efforts, the body of the missing jawan was found with multiple bullet injuries on his torso including neck." Phone calls and communication exchanges went on from the Indian side to their counterparts -- Pakistani Rangers -- across the border in order to locate the jawan for nearly nine hours before the brutal and "unprecedented" incident came to light, officials said.
The BSF has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan Rangers, they added.
With inputs from PTI
