Thousands bid tearful adieu to BSF jawan killed by Pakistani forces along IB near Jammu

JAMMU: The last rites of BSF head constable Narendra Singh, who was hacked to death by the Pakistani forces along the International Border near Jammu, was performed at his residence in Haryana's Sonipat on Thursday.

Thousands of people, officials of the local administration and Army officers attended the last rites of the slain BSF jawan. 

Singh had reportedly gone missing after an exchange of fire with Pakistan in Jammu's Ramgarh Sector on September 18 and his body was later by the Indian security forces later.

The slain BSF jawan's throat was slit by the Pakistani troops, a government official was quoted as saying by PTI.

After the ''brutal'' and "unprecedented" incident, the security forces issued a "high alert" across the entire IB and the Line of Control (LoC).

The Border Security Force 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 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.

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 point and cited water-logging issues 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.

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.

The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) is also expected to take up the issue with its Pakistani counterparts.

They said since the BSF patrol party that went ahead of the fence to cut the tall "sarkanda" grass to clear the field was first fired upon at 10.40 AM on Tuesday, hectic phone calls and communication exchanges went on throughout the day from the Indian side to across the border in order to locate the body of the jawan, who was first declared missing. 

Interestingly, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Monday said that the heads of Pakistani soldiers are being cut-off, but they are not being displayed.

"Kaat to Rahe Hain, Display Nahin Kar Rahen (heads are being cut off, but are not being displayed)," she said.

Sitharaman made these remarks during an interview to a television news channel.

The terrorists are not allowed to infiltrate into the country. They are being eliminated right at the borders, she added.

However, this was not the first time that the Pakistani forces had given an ''inhuman and barbaric treatment'' to the Indian soldiers.

Last year, the Pakistani forces had killed two Indian soldiers and mutilated their bodies after a targeted attack on frontier posts in Jammu and Kashmir - an act which was described as ''despicable'' by the Indian Army.

The slain soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Paramjit Singh, a junior commissioned officer (JCO) with the Army’s 22 Sikh Regiment, and Head Constable Prem Sagar of the BSF’s 200 Battalion.

The 42-year-old Singh was from a village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, while Sagar was a native of Deoria in Uttar Pradesh.