BSF registers protest over killing, hacking of jawan; Pak denies

The BSF has registered a strong protest with its Pakistani counterpart over the killing and slitting of throat of one of its jawans in Jammu and has told the Pak Rangers that the act was "unsoldierly", official sources said Thursday.

They said the atmosphere along the border areas was "tense" and a high alert is in place along this region of the Indo-Pak international border.

The sources said the Pakistani side, which spoke to the Border Security Force officials in the noon over phone, "denied any hand" in the killing of Head Constable Narender Singh on September 18.

The Indian side termed the act as "unsoldierly".

It was informed that Pakistani troops "shot and killed" the BSF trooper, they said.

They added that on getting this response, the BSF told the other side that any future misadventure on the India-Pakistan border will be the responsibility of the Pak Rangers.

"A brief phone call talk took place between the two sides this noon. When it was brought to the notice of Pakistan that they had killed the jawan by resorting to unprovoked fire, they flatly refused any hand of their troops in the incident," a senior official said.

This was the second round of protest that the BSF registered with their counterparts in the last over three days over the killing and throat slitting of their jawan who along with seven others had gone beyond the border fence in the Ramgarh sector as part of a elephant grass (sarkanda) cutting patrol.

The official said the force has issued a "high alert" to all its forward locations on the 192-km-long frontier in Jammu in the backdrop of this incident which is suspected to be "handiwork of a probably a pair of troops from the other side".

The force, they said, has also observed the movement of helicopters and drones in the forward locations across the border in Jammu and hence border posts and patrols have been asked to remind extra vigilant, they said.

The force has also sought, they said, for a sector commander-level (Deputy Inspector General rank level) talks between the two sides in Jammu to thrash out issues but has not received any positive response.

They added that various field formations of the force have been receiving 'spoof calls' from across the border where people masquerading as government intelligence operatives or journalists are wanting to seek details about the incident.

Over a dozen calls have been received over the last two days on the personal and official numbers of field officers and it is suspected that the calls are being made from across the border, they said.